I made you a gravel wasteland

Sod removal happened this weekend, which is how our side yard went from this . . .

. . . to this.

We used YardRents again, who are great. The YardRents guys showed up promptly and showed us how to use the sod cutter. They knew it wasn't going to take us very long, so they didn't even bother to leave. One of the guys snapped photos of the garden (he was so fired up, which was wonderful) and chatted with me about the evils of Round Up while Greg zipped through removing the sod. It took 30 minutes to remove the area along the driveway and the side yard where we bumped out the fence.

Sod cutters are the best. 

The YardRents guys packed up and were on their way and we got work rolling up the sod and transferring it to a pile in the driveway.

Then Greg leveled and regraded the soil so water will hopefully move away from the house, instead of toward it. We also removed the plastic that had been layed down years ago. A previous owner must have tried to keep water away from the house by laying down plastic sheeting and planting sod on top of it. I don't know why this seemed like a good idea but I'm sure a future homeowner will wonder why I put all this gravel in. Ugh, gravel?! Why not some nice lawn?

I headed down to Oregon Decorative Rock and picked up some gravel. I love gravel pathways. I love the sound they make and their persistence. I love the way your wheelbarrow sinks into the gravel, making it impossible to move, pissing off your boyfriend. (I didn't believe Greg when he warned me that would happen.) I really wanted gravel in this part of the yard but I wasn't sure how to handle the transition from the cedar chip pathway that will run through the front yard, and the transition to lawn in the backyard.

Neither of us are happy with the state of the side yard right now because it's a wasteland of gravel. Grey house, grey A/C unit, an eight feet wide expanse of grey gravel. Ultimately we're going to set up the rain barrel and a stock tank for tomatoes against the house, so it should only feel like five feet of gravel instead of eight. I popped some colorful pots over here (and that stupid wheelbarrow) so we'll have some color. I'm hoping to train a vine along this fence and Greg has plans for a trellis of some sort atop our fence. I'm hoping to find something vigorous enough to cover the fence but restrained enough not to pull it down. Any suggestions?

Currently gravel gives way unceremoniously to lawn. My thought right now is to ease the transitions with rock. I was so tired and sunburned by the end of the day that I couldn't handle a third trip to Oregon Decorative Rock. So I plopped it down and called it good.

But I'm fuzzily thinking something like this. Behold, my amazing MS Paint skills!

Eh, I don't know. Next I need to dig down the soil here (it will go in the bottom of the new stock tank), edge the plants with rock, then put down cedar chips.

And then we still have a fair amount of sod to remove by hand, underneath the dogwood's drip line where I was too nervous to use the sod cutter. But I can see the finish line with sod removal!

So my site went down this weekend

My domain name registration automatically renews each year through Google but this year I neglected to read the part of the email where it told me I needed to confirm my payment information. 

If you visited my site this weekend you saw a picture of a pretty co-ed and a suggestion for sites about hammer toes. I'm not as fresh-faced as that girl and my toes, while ugly, suffer only from bunions. I'm sorry if this caused anyone confusion. I'm confused all the time and I can tell you that it's the worst. Please enjoy this picture of a bossy Western Tanager as atonement for my inability to read!

Limping toward the weekend

I acquired a Mukdenia rossi 'Crimson Fans' from Peter (The Outlaw Gardener) and I thought the name was funny. It's not very red! I thought.

But then it started doing this.

If every plant was this aptly named I might be able to remember some of them. Of course, I was trying to remember the word "styrofoam" this week (we were talking about insulation) and I kept saying "chloroform" and then when the person I was talking to looked at me like I was insane,  I said, "You know, the stuff they made coffee cups out of that was so bad for the environment?" They eventually figured out what I was talking about but there's probably no hope for me.

This felt like a very long hard week so I'm curious to see how much vocabulary I'll retain by Saturday. One last friendly reminder that Scott, Loree, Jane, Ann, and I will be talking about garden blogging at Joy Creek tomorrow at 1pm. It should last less than an hour and it's free with no registration required. Just stop by and join in the conversation!

This is how it starts

I've always told myself that I can't be bothered with plants that aren't hardy to my zone. We have such a forgiving climate and we can grow so much, there's no point adding plants that I'd have to schlep indoors during the winter. Not because that isn't a noble pursuit but because I am forgetful and lazy and that would be wasting money when they eventually die.

But.

I went to Rare Plant Research a few weekends ago. It was my second year attending and my resolve broke. "It wouldn't be so bad to bring in a couple of plants in the winter," I thought. "Just one or two is doable." I imagine this is how it starts for everyone. I didn't help that Patricia and Megan of Plant Lust were there with Loree and any time I'd wonder internally "Do I need this?" Patricia would magically appear at my side and say, "Oh, you need that." Loree would nod sagely and into my box it would go. (She got the most beautiful bromeliad I have ever seen. I'm still regretting not buying one.)

I gave in to an Agave attenuata, which we saw all over Maui. I think they are one of the most beautiful plants I've ever seen. The color, the shape . . . okay, some of it is probably the memory of Maui. And no pokey parts! (If anyone is wondering, that agave spike that I had embedded in my fingertip did eventually make its way out.) I also picked up an Aeonium 'Salad Bowl', seen below in the orange pot.

Aeonium 'Salad Bowl' and Agave attentuata

I also purchased two black aeoniums: 'Zwartkop' and 'Moonglow.'

'Moonglow'

'Zwartkop'

Aeonium tops the list of things I wish were hardy in Portland also: echeveria). I also bought some cheapo blue Senecio.

Lastly I picked out an Aloe Dorotheae. As if I didn't spend enough money already, now I need to buy nicer pots.

I guess I need to pay attention to frost dates now, huh?

A gate. Finally.

Since we sunk the fence posts a few weeks back we haven't progressed much. I hung the stringers and outer boards on two of the sections but couldn't move further until we tore out the old corner post.

That post was almost completely rotted through and hosting quite a community of insects. Two summers ago, when I replaced that fence, I reused the post, feeling that it would hold up until we were ready to extend the fence, and it did.

This weekend we had to dig the old one out, re-sink a new post, then finish off the fence and gate. I took the boards off the front and watched in horror as gobs of insects emerged from their nest inside the post. The post lifted right out of its concrete footing and I asked Greg to get it as far from the house as possible, in case the insects I saw were termites. He dropped it right next to the house and I swear I've never wanted to marry him so badly, just so I could divorce him.

I flipped out, he moved it, we were cranky as hell with each other for a few hours. Normal home improvement stuff.

Next we had to dig out the old concrete, which wasn't too bad. We dug all around, then wedged a board under the lip, like a lever. Greg stood/bounced on that while I cranked with the pickax from another direction. And now we have this sweet concrete phallus to use as garden art!

This was an interesting project because I have built all the fences thus far, in some cases without any help. All of a sudden Greg had opinions on the building, and he was telling me to do things.

Anybody who knows me in real life knows that shit don't fly. Unless we're in an emergency and you're trying to talk me through landing the plane or delivering a baby in a taxi, don't tell me what to do. Anyway, I am the worst but we got through it. Greg is the engineer so he designed and prepped the gate. We hung it and leveled it (definitely the hardest part) and got it about 95% done.

Now we need to cut off the tops of the fence posts, rip down some narrower slats (we don't own a table saw), and stain and seal the boards.

I'm reusing some of the old boards to close the gaps on our back fence. As the boards have expanded and contracted in the sun and rain, the gaps have grown and we can see quite a lot of our neighbors' yard (and they ours).

I'm worried we'll forget to close the bedroom drapes and give our neighbors' kids an accidental anatomy lesson. So up the boards are going. They are wonderful neighbors but I'm happy not to see them through the fence.

But the thing that's making me happiest of all is the new gate, which means we have TWO entrances to our yard. We can complete one continuous loop through our front and back yards. Extending the gate also makes our backyard feel bigger and more spacious.

Before

Now

Next up: sod removal and the acquisition of a hammock to better enjoy the fruits of our labor. And maybe some sort of screen to block the view of the AC unit.

A funny thing happened with my High Country Gardens order

Well, my High Country Gardens order finally came. FedEx left them in full sun despite the cautions all over the boxes to leave them in shade. Thanks for nothing, FedEx! There were three boxes, which seemed like a lot for 15 plants.

(That's the sound of foreshadowing you hear. It's similar to the Law&Order bong!bong! noise.)

The plants took a week to arrive so they were really sad and wilted. I opened up the first box and my 15 plants were there. I glanced over at the other two boxes, wondering what the hell was in them. Then I realized that the box I had just opened had a SECOND layer of plants beneath the 15 I'd already pulled out. American Meadows, who has been struggling under the weight of their new acquisition, had sent me someone else's order. A big order. I panicked and texted Scott and he told me that the plants would never survive the trip back to HCG and to unwrap and baby them along with the others. They were mine now.

The packing slip included only the plants I'd ordered. There was no note saying, "Sorry your order was so bungled and late, here's a couple of plants on us." And who sends 50(!) plants as an apology? I unwrapped and watered all the plants, which took over an hour. Then I started reading up on what they'd sent me.

21 Salvia sylvestris 'Blue Hill'. You read that right; 21 of the same salvia.

5 Dalea pupureum

4 Ratibida columnifera 'Yellow'

9 Gaillardia (two colors)

12 Stachys coccineus 'Mountain Red'

I've called and called HCG, trying to get a rep so I can alert them that a customer probably got a shipment notification and never received their plants. I would be so upset if that happened to me. As before, no one answers the phone and their voicemail box is full. I spent an entire day putting plants in the ground, hoping they'll survive. It's a good thing I have so much empty space in my garden. Have you ever received an order that wasn't yours?

Silvery buns of goodness

Cotula hispida is described by Xera as "silvery buns of goodness."

Very aptly named.