Rose Cottage

  It's exciting to watch the garden emerge and take shape!   I seeded more of my Homesteaders Kaleidoscopic Perennial kale Grex (Experimental Farm Network) - always fun to see the variety of plants which emerge.  Tomatoes, basil, kale seedlings on right I sketched various plans for each bed, then, go out to the garden and fine tune with the Devas, for the layout! We still don't have fences to the N or S, so the deer roam through.... tulle and binder clips provide night time protection!  Tomatillos and Monarda I enjoy planting a mix of old favorites and less standard greens - orach, new Zealand spinach, doucette (summer relative of corn salad/ maché) red celery, Alexanders, Magentaspreen, shiso ... and purslane transplanted from the lot.  Varieties of beans include Dragons Tongue, Red Swan, Edamame, runner beans, and Trail of Tears. There are Dragons egg and Persian cucumbers, bitter melon and okra ... a box divided into 4 sections for burdock... Morning vi...

  This spring my son came with his small tractor to till the back lot while the fence to the S is open. While I prefer no-dig methods, and minimal soil disturbance, Mary wanted the lot evened out. Garden shed, greenhouse, artichoke and Rosemary - and on the right, the row of blueberries.  Freshly Tilled Garden I'd already put together several garden beds, and Mary helped me assemble another. Two were in the garden with chard and perennial kale - so I moved those plants out weeks before Josh came to till. Two beds with branches and straw Ideally, I'd cover the whole back with tarps and cardboard ... I had saved enough cardboard to cover the bottom of each bed.  Matt took out the grape in back, and saved the branches for my beds.  The black bag has goat bedding from Michael's house - two bags was enough for  a good layer in 1 1/2 beds. I harvested some of our compost for another layer. The mound of our native dirt to the left of the back bed it's loose enough to d...

 This week for Earth day, our Climate Action Group hosted several events:  Saturday a fair worth talks on reducing use of plastics and recipes/ tips.  On Monday, we joined the worldwide prayers for the earth, and showed the new film Common Ground, which highlights the importance of returning to sustainable agricultural practices. Rojo Chiquito beans in filtered water  This morning, I'm soaking Rojo Chiquito beans  (du ya • gi ga ge i) - I usually soak beans 4+ hours, then rinse, drain and pre-sprout by repeating the rinse / drain sequence several times over 8-24 hours.  I'll simmer frozen veggie trimmings for stock, and add a splash of vinegar, kombu (seaweed) a bay leaf,yomohi and herbs as I cook the beans.  For making Stock, plus my Rice n Lentils recipes, check out this post . These small red beans will take a bit longer than the lentils, likely 60-90 minutes total. I Picked up the beans on my Tuesday trip to Wellspent Market (in Mac Mkt on A...

 An Herb Spiral is a common feature in permaculture gardens. Several herb plants have been in pots for quite awhile,  and I'd already planted some herbs in the bed to the left of my door, so decided that was a good place to add a spiral!  New Herb Spiral In her Lovely Greens blog ,  Tanya Anderson of wrote, "One of the smartest ways to grow herbs is in an herb spiral. Situated in a sunny location close to your home, they create micro-climates that allow you to grow many herbs within the same small space.  Typically made of bricks or stone, it winds up from the ground in a small spiral mound. Herbs that like more sun and drier feet get planted at the top. Plants that like moister soil and a little shade go towards the bottom. The sun also heats it through the day, releasing that warmth through the night." Rock pile under Elder The flat bed 'before' had the topset leeks, parsley, Chives, Rue, pansy, (Good King Henry - a perennial spinach) and celery Parsley, Alliu...

  I *finally* got out to rework the garden bed Zander and I began summer of 22!  Matt tossed clover seed over the back several years ago as a ground cover. They have gardened on the back lot several times over the 15 years they've been here, and it's good soil, but more exposed to cold than near the houses.  Zander and his sis learned about food security and planted seeds each day at VBS '22 (vacation bible school), and we gave the marigolds, beans and sunflowers they started a home, along with tomatoes, peppers and pink celery. We used wood rounds and chicken wire around the bed to define it. Kale, chard and lots of clover When I moved across town last fall, I put in a couple of chard, Perennial kale, ( homesteaders kaleidoscope,  seed from Experimental Farm Network), plus garlic and Babington topset leeks. I've had the leeks a decade, after getting sets from Peace Seeds; whose founder Dr. Alan 'Mushroom' Kapuler recently passed.   Mushroom loved sha...

 Our Edible landscape festival mid May was a lovely, well attended event, and we gave away most of the 3000+ starts we brought! It was Hot - I was so glad we had an event tent Edible Landscaping booth   A few weeks before, we weeded our beds along Alpine, and covered each with compost from EL founder, Ramsey McPhillips. He also had a booth at the festival, and was giving out coffee sacks with some of his black gold - I was tickled to take one home for my own poteger.  Garden gold - compost We volunteers took home our own curated caches of starts, and I planted some of mine in a galvanized trough I'd picked up from the feed store. I also got a Rosemary and several raspberry starts, which were donated by a local nursery.  We intend to set up a new raspberry patch in the back garden, so this gives us a start.  Salad garden and herbs in pots This week I headed back to the Tea Garden I'm tending on Alpine with a couple of watering cans - and it's growing beautifully...

 This spring I decided to join a group of volunteers who plant and tend raised bed boxes in the granery district along Alpine Avenue.   We met at Mac Market last week, and chatted about the project, what was planted in the beds last year, and chose from those available for tending and watering this year.  Alpine garden beds I'm one of 10 new volunteers, and my first bed (near the one in the photo) has raspberry, blackberry and strawberries. There's room for some Edible flowers, and perhaps a native Camas. I'd like to add an arctic raspberry, when I find some! We'll return soon for garden cleanup and spread a new layer of mulch. Many of the beds have cover crops, including a nice patch of miners lettuce!  Tea Garden Gal! There's a Tea Garden, and I was excited that one's now available, so I'll be tending it! I may ask for the herb garden next to it, and see if someone else would like the Berry bed.  The perennials don't require as much water as the annua...