Hot weather confuses Lisa

This is my tiny water fountain setup by the front door. I wish I could remember the name of the little spreading water plant that's growing in it. Maybe someone will recognize it. I need a better system for identifying the plants I purchase. The system I have now involves taking the tag out of the plant and putting it somewhere.

This water plant did really well last year in the fountain, then in the fall I removed it and stuck it on the back porch railing because I figured it was done forever and I'd have to buy a new one for the following season. When I put everything back together a couple of weeks ago, I placed the plant, which had a few green baby leaves, back in the water to see what would happen. What happened is, it seems very happy. Good enough!

We are growing herbs, lettuce, nasturtiums, and a cucumber in two half wine barrels by the front door. So far things seem to be going well:

I'd also like to throw some green onions in there since we use them all the time. One of the vendors at the Beaverton Farmers Market promised to bring some next Saturday for me, so I'll go back and see if I can get them along with my (I hope) red wiggler worms.

Here is my Raymond Evison 'Empress' clematis, which is doing well in a pot by the front door:

My other clematis, which I have trained on my hinoki cypress shrub, is opening as well. I don't have the name of it because of my faulty plant id system. Some of the flowers are looking nice:


Some of the flowers are getting chomped, however. Are slugs actually making there way up the 4 ft. hinoki and eating my flowers? Or is it something else? Also, some of the leaves got some pretty bad sunburn after our short spate of 90+ degree days. They burned last year, too. I really tried to keep them watered during the heat, but I didn't do enough. Here's my chomped purple baby and some of the scorched leaves:


Maybe the heat damaged the petals as well as the leaves. The holes just look sort of insect-y, but I'm not sure what's going on. It's a little disappointing to see after waiting patiently for the buds to open.

Also, see what the heat did to my daphne 'summer ice'?


It's not a goner, but it sure dropped a lot of leaves in desperation. It's not that I'm complaining about an 0ccasional hot day. We're pretty lucky to have a mild, relatively garden-friendly climate here in Oregon. The problem is that my plants, especially the new and sensitive ones, were becoming accustomed to our very cool wet spring. A few days of oven-blasting on their little green bodies and they go screaming. Unfortunately for them, they can't retire into the house for a cold glass of lemonade, so all they can do is go brown while their slightly confused human steward tries to figure out the best way to protect them. I've tried... water, water, water. But this weather was too shocking for these guys. Probably nothing could have helped in this instance. They just need to establish and experience more weather extremes.

Although... the leaves on my clematis burned last year, too. They must need more shade than I thought. I'm confused because the tag, when I had it, said shade the base but give the top lots of sun. When I do that though, I get French-fried leaves. What's up with that?

Potential

A fully-flowered rhododendron is a lovely thing, but a not-quite-fully flowered rhody seems even sweeter to me. It's in that delicious almost there stage.

A lot of almost there things are wonderful. Almost a love affair. Almost a slice of birthday cake. Almost asleep. Almost awake. Almost there, sweetie...

Worms and politics

Sometimes you go to the Beaverton Farmers Market looking for red worms from March Biological Control and then you find out it's too hot for red worms, but try again next week, it might be cooler. Then you get your son a lemonade, then you bump into Chelsea Clinton. It's not like you're looking for her. But you feel a little bad because you're voting for Obama. And Chelsea kind of looks like she'd rather be somewhere else, but she has a nice smile.

Alas, however, your vermicomposter still sits fallow.

I am, I said!

I've been looking at this little lady at Haggen Grocery's nursery out front... looking and looking... Finally today I caved in and bought her. I love her. She's Bonkers Lady Who Loves Plants. That's me. I don't have fairy wings like her, but they're a nice touch. See? She has wild hair like I do!

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So. I am legit. I am real and legit. Yesterday the volunteer coordinator from the Japanese Garden called me and asked if I could lead a tour today for a group from the Rhododendron Society based somewhere in Washington State. Wow. I was originally planning to do my first tour on June 1, safely far away. But I said yes. So last night I got grumpy and scared, and I crammed, filling my little cheat notebook with everything I could research and remember.

This morning I woke up before 7 a.m., and I promptly grabbed my notes and read, read, read. I got on the internet and checked on some facts that I felt cloudy about. I showered. I applied rouge and earrings. I put on my slightly bulging skinny pants and a fine blue shirt, took a deep breath, and left at 9:15. The garden opened at 10, but I got in about 9:35 and got my badge. I ambled about and wondered if this would be the beginning of something wonderful or the end of something horrendous. I met up with two other experienced tour guides. The Rhododendron Society group was so large we needed to break them up into three groups of eight or so, each with their own tour guide.

The groups piled in and I wandered out and met my eight people. I introduced myself as Lisa and tried to pretend I wasn't shy. I wondered if I was going to have much of anything to say. Since the volunteer coordinator called yesterday, I've been wondering if I was going to have anything to say at all, much less an hour's worth of material. It had been awhile since I'd been to the garden, and even longer since I've actively studied the history and design and trivia of the place. I could only imagine standing around, blank in mind and voice while people stared at me wishing I wasn't wasting their time.

I took the group in to the front gate area, asked them a few questions, and introduced myself. I told them I had completed my training this winter and was still wet behind the ears, so if I made any errors, or told them I was going to tell them something and failed to, or if I talked or moved too fast, please pipe in and let me know. The one thing I didn't want to do was apologize all over the place for being new. When I'm in a group and we have a new tour guide or a new leader of any kind, I find it very uncomfortable when they apologize and kowtow for being inexperienced, and make amends in advance for mistakes they haven't even made yet. Then all I can think about is their awkward newness and how I'm probably missing out on something.

I would do that very thing I hate if I hadn't seen and noted other new people doing it.

So I didn't, and we dove in. What shocked me was how much I had to say, and how much fun I had saying it. I could see from people's faces that I was teaching, and even the two people who had been there before were able to see things in a new way because of the things I told them.

I went over the hour by about ten minutes. I could have gone on longer. At the end of the tour, I let them know that they were my very first tour group. People said nice things, and some of them shook my hand. How satisfying! The only thing I worried about was that there was an elderly woman there whom I exhausted during some of our long step-climbing. There are not a lot of ways around that, especially in the stair-heavy Natural Garden. I need to go back and find the path I would take if I had issues with multiple steps so that I can confidently direct the people who can't or don't want to negotiate them to a different route.

You know what was funny? I glanced at my cheat book once, to help me recite a poem from the poetry stone. Other than that, my little cheat book full of desperate notes went unread. I knew enough. I knew more than enough.

I am a Japanese Garden tour guide!

Shh

Back to the Japanese Garden today. I've committed to lead a tour on Sunday, June 1. This will give me some time to review a few things. I've been on Japanese Garden hiatus for awhile, and I feel rusty.

I spent most of my time in the Natural Garden section. This is my favorite area. It's cool and shady and intimate with lots of water sounds. I'll share a few photos with you. I find I don't have much else to say at the moment, so these photos shall accompany some blessed silence from me, to you.

Yardwork

My goal is to make my rubber stamp suburban yard into something a little more funky. Nice, but funky. I've been trying to emulate the College Hill neighborhood in Eugene, which has properties that range from poor-folk owned to too-much-money-to-know-what-to-do-with owned. Of course, the higher up the hill you go...

But rich or poor, a lot of these properties have interesting yards. Many of the homes are 50 years old or more. A lot of these College Hill dwellers put quite a bit of unrestrained thought into their yards. You can tell they aren't encumbered by what they suppose a nice yard should look like. It's like shooting a basketball. When you think too hard, you miss, but when you run and toss it up, you're more likely to slam it.

I've seen front-yard gardens and raised beds. I've seen a giant artichoke used as an ornamental. There are lawns loaded with English daisies. Lots of sedums, masses of rudbeckias, astilbe, lilies, crazy climbers, wood and wrought-iron fences and decor, water features...

Just fun stuff for the eyes to see.

I promise I won't load my front lawn with English daisies, but I just want a little fun in my yard. I want people to see my yard and feel interested for a moment when they walk by. I want to feel comfort and satisfaction when I'm out there, like when I'm plucking a leaf or fluffing a sedge, I'm really doing something nice. That's it... I'm just trying to make my little patch of Earth a lush and lovely place to be.

I mean, as long as I'm here, I might as well...

Experimental columbine photo

...Is all.

The Star from afar

Casey the Cat nonchalantly yawns in the girlie pink litter box, not knowing it will belong to his future feline sister, Rosie the Cat.

Son and I took a trip over to Hart Road Animal Hospital to visit Rosie (nee Simmons), and the folks kindly took her out of her cage so she could say hello and love us all over the place. And drool. She gets a little drooly when she's being affectionate. We may have to offer people a Rosie towel when they want to say hello to our newest family member. Son suggested we have a few tea towels with "Rosie" embroidered on them to hand out.

She seemed to rein (rain) in the faucet a little after a few minutes of attention. She's such an unabashedly friendly little thing. I'm hoping she and Casey will become fast friends.

The vet clinic gave us the cute pink litter box with the heart to keep for her. Very sweet. We'll have his and her restroom facilities for our cats.

Rosie is still very pregnant. The vet doesn't think she'll be having her babies just yet, but they'll keep us updated.