Wormsign!

I was out turning over the decomposing leaves into the garden today and in many of the forkfuls of soil were earthworms! Big fat worms, medium worms, and small baby worms. Worms everywhere:

Why is this a big deal you ask? Because this is garden section number 2, the one that I built from scratch 2 years ago that sits above the ground. I brought in some base garden dirt, added a ton of composted chicken manure and have been adding autumn leaves, green cuttings, kitchen scraps, wood ashes, shredded newspaper, kelp meal, old aquarium water, and bone meal ever since. The first year it produced nothing but beans well (which fix their own nitrogen), last year it produced peas and beans very well and the rest of the veg at about 50% of what it should have:

This year I hope to have a fully functional garden. Worms help aerate the soil, minimizing soil compaction and allowing plants to access water and air easily. As the earthworms eat their way through the garden soil, they produce waste - worm castings - that are full of nutrients such as phosphorus, calcium, nitrogen and magnesium. The more worms in a garden, the more productive that garden soil will be. Last year there were a few worms in the garden, but not many. This year, there appear to be many worms! Color me excited to see how the veg garden will perform this year with a garden crawling with worms.

Grapes

One of the first things I did when I began the garden was to plant grapes along the fence of the sport court. It gets very hot along this area and stays sunny all day long. I thought, heck, I'll give grapes a go. Well, a couple years later and I harvested 20 pounds of grapes from the 2 vines I planted! And that was after the deer ran off with several mouthfuls. The grapes totally took over the fencing and provided us much needed privacy on that side of the yard:

These are the Canadice grapes. I also planted Glenora and harvested an equal amount of those.

All of those grapes became jelly! Beautiful jewel colored jelly. This is the Canadice grape jelly:

I also thought I would try my hand at preserving grape leaves and that also turned out pretty well:

This year I planted a white grape as well and if it follows the growth pattern of the other 2 vines, will begin to bear fruit this next year. I think I better learn how to make wine.

Perennial Slope Garden Through the Seasons

The last couple years have been spent removing 3 ft tall weeds from the slope below the sport court. I have slowly been clearly it and replacing with perennials. Sometimes the plants work, sometimes not so much and I shift things about. As it is, I have snapped pics of all 4 seasons, which turns out, is pretty neat.

So, here is Spring and as you can see, there are many iris on this slope on the right. I split a 30 year old declining iris bed up and moved several of them to this spot:

The iris love it here and are really making a comeback. I think they just needed split up:

There are also species tulips I planted here. The rabbits don't seem to bother these like they do the hybrids:

Closer. These are Tulipa Sylvestris:

I think these were Tulipa Clusiana Cynthia:

And Byzantine glads. Yep, these are the real deal:

Same slope in the Summer. Crocosmia, Guara, Lavender, Jerusalem sage, California poppies, several varieties of Penstemon, Achillea, and many others fill this space. And look at the rampant grape vines! Glorious! Beyond the Crocosmia and escaping the camera shot are 2 Gooseberry shrubs and maybe 11 or 12 Lingonberry shrubs that are really starting to take off. I'm really excited about those.

A closer look at the slope plantings and a garden lantern surrounded by OxEye daisies and California poppies:

Nasturtiums and California poppies:

And here we are in the Autumn. Goodness, I do so love having real seasons again! Here, the grape vines are turning fabulous colors, the blue gray of the Lavender really stands out, Guara foliage turns more reddish as the nights cool way down, and the huge fuzzy leaves of the Jerusalem sage add texture:

Winter! Snow blankets the perennials with the Achillea and Jerusalem seed heads providing texture to the winter garden.

I have expanded this bed even further along the slope this year adding shrub roses, more guara, more herbs, and other interesting plants. I can't wait until spring so I can watch the slope fill in the rest of the way.

A Brand New Year - I'm back!

Wow, It's hard to believe it has been this long since I posted to this garden blog. My life has been so busy the past couple years that I hardly had time for myself. I love living in the Pacific Northwest. It truly is my happy place. The last several years have been spent working, working, and working some more and spending what little time I had to myself outdoors hiking, exploring, and of course gardening!

Even though I love where I live, after a decade of hard work, I realized that life was passing quickly and that if I didn't stop and look around a little bit, it would pass me right on by. So, this past year I made a life choice to take a sabbatical and spend some time with my family. It's the best decision I have ever made. I went to visit family I haven't seen in a couple years, I took a month long vacation to Yellowstone National Park and hiked over 100 miles of back country and boardwalks, spent weekends hiking in Mt Rainier National Park, ran many cross country miles in my state parks, visited the coast, learned to cook real food (how funny that I love to grow veggies, but never was a very good cook), completed a 5000 piece puzzle, learned to can and preserve all manner of gardened and foraged foods, and of course worked in my new garden I am building. I had some days where I just sat back and enjoyed the sun hitting my face while sipping an iced tea and reading a book. It was fabulous.

I feel as though my mind is finally refreshed and I'm ready to tackle this new year and whatever it may bring.

I knocked around the idea of changing the name of this blog since I haven't spent much time with it recently, but really, the name still applies. The sun french fries me when I'm out in it and I really am a pluviophile. So, the blog name is staying and I'm returning to frequent it.

Without further adieu, here is a pic of the backyard perennial garden as it was this last summer and I'll be back soon with more garden-y updates. Happy New Year Everyone!

There are many daylilies in this bed as well, but bloomed earlier in the spring. Here are the lemon lilies:

These bloom the same time and I think are hemerocallis dumortieri:

Here are the lilies all together. The neighbor lady who has lived in her house for over 30 years gave these to me when she was splitting the massive clumps of them she had:

On the sunnier side of this flower bed are the liatris, coneflower, rudbeckia, and hollyhock mallow. This is really the first year they have bloomed like this since I started them from seed. I think I had a couple coneflower the year prior, but that was it. Everything in this bed has to be rabbit-proof because, well, we are overrun with rabbits here. I tried to grow some giant allium in this bed, but the rabbits mow it down every year in early spring. So I gave up on those. Oh, well. At least they don't eat these!