Bonnie Brae Garden

The Haunted Garden

2009-10-13T14:08:00.000-07:00

Autumn brings many lovely and vibrant changes to the garden. For some, it brings skeletons, ghosts and tombstones to their yards.

While visiting some friends who convert their entire yard into a "haunted attraction" during the month of October, I find myself photographing pumpkin vines that have found their way through the eye sockets in a skull, skeletons hanging from trees and tombstones that rise from a rolling green lawn.

My friends, Jeff and Chris Davis, owners of The Davis Graveyard, have a beautiful yard made all the more engaging (and spooky) with the addition of hand-carved styrofoam tombstones, projection ghosts, sound effects and animatronics. They and their staff of volunteer artists and technological savants have put a lot of work and good thinking into this favorite local attraction. Admission is free. Donations are given to charity.

Here are some photos.

About Me

2009-03-23T20:10:00.000-07:00

I have always been drawn to gardens. In fact, my first drawings were of flowers. The flowers I liked to draw the most were daisies and tulips. (Maybe that's because they were the easiest flowers to draw!) Since those earliest days, I have discovered photography and what seems to be an obsession with photographing the natural world.

When I am not busy photographing gardens, I am busy researching them. I spend many an evening perusing my collection of garden design books. Most of my latest acquisitions focus on edible landscaping.

Even though I spend a lot of time in the theoretical garden, the garden of imagery and design, I do manage to get my hands dirty! I am gradually changing our late 1960's era suburban yard, the kind with Japanese maples and rhododendrons surrounding swaths of green lawn, into a place that can provide both sustenance and sanctuary, a garden that produces both food and beauty.

I devote part of my free time to helping others learn to garden. If you live in the Portland, Oregon area I encourage you to check out Growing Gardens. You'll never believe how great you'll feel after helping a family create their first vegetable garden.

March brings daffodils

2009-03-23T18:30:00.000-07:00

We survived the winter.

This past Christmas we had a storm which the news referred to as Arctic Blast 2008! There was so much snow and ice that we were housebound for almost two weeks. One snowy afternoon, we hiked to the grocery store to pick up our fresh turkey for Christmas. There was definitely something weird about carrying a fresh turkey in a box while walking our snow packed neighborhood streets. A lot of our neighbors were out and about, bundled up in their winter jackets, gloves, scarves, hats, snowshoes... I kept thinking to myself that this is what it might be like if we slipped into another ice age.

January and February passed quickly. The crocus and then the daffodils emerged in our atrium. The days lengthened. The rain changed from mist to showers to drizzle and then to mist again. Last week we had a truly spring like day. White, luminous clouds stretched across the blue horizon. The slanting, golden sunlight promised more days of warmth and brightness.

The daffodils around town are in full bloom. It is still amazes me that daffodils will return year after year, without fail, as if to announce the return of the sun.

Winter

2008-11-18T21:21:00.000-08:00

It is the middle of November. In Oregon, this means that about three out of five days are overcast and misty. The days are noticeably shorter, with the sun sinking quietly into an ever darkening gray at about 4:30 pm. The nights are long, chilled and silent.

Our gardens have slipped into their winter slumber. Last week, the remaining leaves fell from the Autumn Moon maple in our courtyard.

The last of the summer's roses

2008-10-19T15:54:00.000-07:00

Portland's International Rose Test Garden was created in 1917 with the support of the American Rose Society. Since then, new rose varieties have been continually tested in this garden. There are now 10,000+ rose plants in the 4.5 acre garden.

The garden is in Washington Park, next to the Portland Japanese Garden. So, after leaving the Japanese Garden, we decided to visit the rose garden.

Even though it is October, most of the roses were still blooming. I had brought my camera with me so that I could photograph the last of the summer's roses.

Japanese Garden

2008-10-19T15:23:00.001-07:00

Yesterday afternoon we visited the Portland Japanese Garden. We arrived around 2 pm and left shortly after 4pm, before the gate closed for the night.

The garden showcases the following traditional Japanese garden styles:

Tea Garden
Strolling Pond Garden
Natural Garden
Sand and Stone Garden
Flat Garden

Since it is October, the fall color had begun to show in the garden. Even the red Japanese maples were beginning to turn.

We started our tour at the Tea Garden, then slowly made our way through the Strolling Pond Garden.

We ended the visit at the Flat Garden, the most formal of the five gardens. At the gate, we saw the last of the afternoon sunlight filtering through the trees.

Time to pick the best of the patch

2008-10-11T18:44:00.000-07:00

During October we like to visit Sauvie Island. It is a small, rural island surrounded by the Columbia River.

Although it is late in the year, there is still plenty of fresh produce at the island farms.

Plus, there are pumpkin patches with an abundance of u-pick pumpkins.

There are also corn mazes

carved pumpkins

stands of sunflowers

pumpkin baths

challenging games such as the pumpkin slingshot

and fields edged with the last of the summer dahlias.

If you're lucky, you'll find something truly unusual.

You might even be able to find yourself.

October is here again

2008-10-11T18:03:00.001-07:00

The days are shorter. The nights are colder.

The maples are ablaze.

Almost November - Time to Carve Pumpkins!

2007-10-07T09:19:00.000-07:00

Well, October came and went in a hurry. Now it is almost November and I still have garlic to plant. So, what will I be doing this week? Planting garlic about the yard. This is the first time I've tried to grow garlic. Supposedly, is is one of the best things you can grow in your yard since it deters so many pests.

As for other garden news, I am still enjoying the occasional cucumber. The carrots are still in the ground. I am going to have to pull them up soon, I guess. The carrot tops are looking a little wilted. Maybe it is because of the cooler weather we have been having? The lettuces and rainbow colored swiss chard are still doing ok. Sadly, the tomatoes and peppers are in suspended animation. I'll be pulling the rest of the green tomatoes from the vines this week. Maybe they will ripen in the house? I removed the dying watermelon vines yesterday. We planted their seeds way too late and didn't get a single watermelon this year. I guess we'll do better next year?

Tomorrow night we'll be carving our pumpkins. Remember the pumpkin seeds I sowed June? We've been giving some of the pumpkins away to our neighbors. I wonder what the kids across the street are going to do with the white pumpkin.

The best meal we had all year?

2007-09-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago my parents were in town. They live on the other side of the country. So, it is a rare treat to be able to actually share a meal with them.

We decided to cook dinner the Sunday that they were here. (Typically, they like to go out for dinner while they are on vacation.) For dinner, we grilled some some steak and lamb kabobs from our favorite local grocery store, New Seasons. To go with these delectable kabobs, we had steamed green beans and a salad made of several different types of lettuces, cucumbers, carrots, cherry tomatoes and zucchini.

There really wasn't any extravagant about this meal. However, it was the first time that we had grown all the vegetables we ate, from the beans to the carrots. We picked all the vegetables minutes before we ate them so they were fresh, crisp and full of life.

What I did differently this year

2007-08-22T16:44:00.000-07:00

One spring day twenty or so years ago, my mom brought home Mel Bartholomew's first book on Square Foot Gardening. Following the advice found in that book, we built our first square foot garden in the corner of our back yard, the only corner that received enough sunlight to grow vegetables. (Several large pecan trees lived in our back yard - they gave us a lot of pecans and squirrels but they also gave us a lot of shade!) We did the best we could with what we had and were rewarded with fresh radishes, lettuces, string beans, squash and cherry tomatoes. Even though my grandparents grew up on farms and ranches this was the first time that I actually realized that I could grow my own food instead of having to buy what was available at the local supermarket.

Since those first Square Foot Gardening days, I have continued to garden, from growing tomatoes, cucumbers, roses and herbs in containers, to my first attempts at growing things like pumpkins, corn and beans from seed. Every year I try to learn something new, try to do something differently.

What did I do differently this year? I decided that I would try to grow all the vegetables that we typically buy every week. This means that I would grow various lettuces, kale, swiss chard, green beans, snow peas, mustard greens, slicing and cherry tomatoes, basil, cilantro, peppers, onions, oregano, sage, thyme, carrots, summer squash, zucchini and corn. Did I grow all of that? Yes. I did. I had some help, of course. Did anything fail? Yes. My summer squash died from a particularly nasty powdery mildew infection and I am not entirely sure if the onions will ever get bigger than peas. Let's not forget that some of the corn decided to fall over one rather windy afternoon. But, I tried and was rewarded with a lot of good, fresh food. There really is nothing like eating a sweet cherry tomato right off the vine.

What will I continue to do differently? As long as I can, I will walk past most of the produce in the grocery store and at the farmers markets, knowing that we already have what we need growing in our yard.

Happy Accident

2007-08-21T17:44:00.000-07:00

Last year I planted lobelia in the Herb Garden. I thought it would fill in around the newly planted tomatoes, along with the Opal and Thai basil. The lobelia quickly died after the temperatures skyrocketed to 105+ degrees, a quite unexpected heat wave during the month of June.

Earlier this summer, I noticed a small but yet somewhat familiar plant growing by the moss covered boulder in the East side garden. I hadn't planted anything in this part of the yard, attempting to maintain what seems to be the original Northwest influenced modern landscape. Since the plant wasn't one of the easily recognizable weeds that like to show up in our yard, I left it alone.

A few weeks ago blue blossoms started to appear on our little plant. Guess what it was? A lobelia. Maybe it is a self-sown offspring of one of the short lived lobelias from last year's Herb Garden? Regardless of its origins, it is doing fine in its partially shady location.

Deck of Death

2007-08-17T11:07:00.000-07:00

When we purchased our house in 2005, the lot was accessorized with a weathered wood deck. After two years, I am really ready to remove it, especially since there are three holes in it that haven't been repaired. And, since Nick stepped through the rotting back portion of it last summer, we can add "potential health hazard" to the list of reasons for why we want to be rid of the deck.

The floor to ceiling windows in our living and dining rooms currently offer a great view of the weathered deck, fence and the rather utilitarian looking "mega church" in the lot behind us. If we remove the deck, then we can plant trees in the back yard. Trees and other shrubberies might help to hide the world beyond our fence line and afford us some much needed privacy since the back of our house is primarily made of glass. Vegetation, and perhaps even a water feature in the back yard, might also provide some sound deadening.

Pumpkins and Bees

2007-08-09T16:35:00.000-07:00

In June, I planted some pumpkin seeds in the Box Garden. The instructions on the seed packet advised planting flowers to attract bees next to the pumpkins since the pumpkin flowers needed to be visited at least eight times by bees to be pollinated. Because of this, I planted a "birds, bees and butterflies" flower seed mix in the Herb Garden. And, I hoped for the best.

Here's a photo that shows the Herb Garden (top left) next to the Box Garden (see the boxes?). The flower mix to attract bees is behind the catmint (mound like plant by the deck covered with purple flowers). I also planted some white sunflowers in this area. They haven't started blooming yet.

Herb Garden in August

2007-08-09T16:24:00.000-07:00

The Herb Garden is starting to fill out now that it is high summer. The birds, bees and butterflies flower mix that I sowed in June is starting to flower. Thankfully, most of the plants in this garden don't need that much water.

We've been enjoying the cosmos - it is almost three feet tall.

Box Garden in August

2007-08-09T15:55:00.001-07:00

We were off to a late start with the gardens this summer. This was mainly due to our underestimating the time it would take to clear off the grass and weeds and construct the path in the Box Garden.

Regardless, we are starting to enjoy more of our harvest. In the Box Garden, the hot peppers and tomatoes are ready. We've also been picking beans. Let's not forget the basils, lettuces and dill.

I found our first pumpkin this afternoon. It is on the plant towards the front of the Box Garden, next to the path.

Side Garden in August

2007-08-09T15:52:00.001-07:00

Now that it is August, the seeds sown in June are almost fully grown. The pumpkins are finally starting to bear fruit. The corn is showing its tassels. The sunflowers seem to be two feet taller every week.

This past weekend we put down some "quarter minus" gravel around the three garden beds. We used some leftover river rock and some "found" rock from our own yard to delineate the bed boundaries.

We also created a landing for the Side Garden using seven pieces of Three Rivers flagstone. We simply settled the pieces into the gravel. Now we have a place to stop and survey the garden.

By the honeysuckle, in the middle of the side yard, we made another landing, or possible seating area, using gravel and rock. We'll be planting vine maples and other natives in the shadier part of the side yard this fall and next spring. We also have plans to build a garden shed in this area.

Moving gravel, one wagonload at a time

2007-08-07T15:43:00.000-07:00

This past week we moved three yards of "quarter minus" gravel and three yards of dark brown Hemlock mulch to the Box Garden and the Side Garden.

We used our Vigoro Garden Cart to move the gravel and mulch. Here's more on our trusty little wagon:

Features a patented quick-release dumping mechanism for easy unloading

Durable rust proof plastic bed with sturdy metal frame and 10" pneumatic tires

Lightweight for easy hauling

Offers 600lb capacity in haul position; 300lb capacity in dump position

We've got beans!

2007-08-07T15:39:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I was checking on raised garden beds in the Box Garden and noticed that we have green beans ready for the picking.

I typically check the garden every morning. So, it was quite a surprise to find that the bean plants are covered with beans. Maybe it is difficult to see the newly emerging beans under the leaves?

What kind of beans are we growing? Romano Bush and Blue Lake Bush. I like to sautee the Romano beans with a little olive oil or butter. The green beans are great in salads, steamed or in soups. Some people even fry them.

We can scratch green beans off our weekly shopping list. We already have them!

July and August Herb and Vegetable Planting

2007-07-23T12:23:00.001-07:00

In the Northwest, we can grow herbs and vegetables year round. We do occasionally have a hard freeze or two in January of February. Fortunately, the hardy herbs (lavender, rosemary, thyme, sage and oregano) in our yard have survived the freezes and the several inch snowfalls that accompany them.

Now that it is late July, we'll be planting our fall crop. This will include green leafy vegetables like kale and collards as well as broccoli.

We are ordering seed from the Territorial Seed Company. They have a great seed catalog that not only advertises their products but also provides many helpful gardening tips.

The Portland Nursery Veggie Calendar is a another very useful resource. It tells you what you can plant as seed outdoors, start as seed indoors or plant as transplants outdoors for every month of the year.

If you'd like to learn more about planting for winter harvesting, and possibly get your hands dirty doing so, Growing Gardens is offering a free workshop on Saturday, July 28th. See their calendar for more information.

Nature Photography

2007-07-23T11:30:00.000-07:00

Ever since I was old enough to operate a camera, I have been taking pictures of flowers, trees, rocks, insects and our pets.

Four years ago I purchased my first digital camera, a Nikon Coolpix 5000. Last year I upgraded to my first digital SLR camera, the Nikon D50. Now I have my eye on the Nikon D80.

Modern Landscape

2007-07-20T15:04:00.000-07:00

Because we live in a house built in 1967 and we are attempting to "restore" it to its former modern glory, some assume that we are going to revert to a "modern landscape". When we ask them what they mean by "modern landscape" they innevitably say that the modern landscape is a lawn, neatly trimmed shrubs and concrete. What they seem to be referring to is a very minimalist approach to landscape design and perhaps a crude one at that. There is a difference between a well designed minimalist garden and a lot that has been cleared, leveled and hastily decorated with grass and some shrubbery.

Over the years I have searched for the true Modern Garden. After all my searching, all I have found are a set of loosely defined landscape concepts which seem to center on the unification of the interior and exterior living spaces in an intentional, functional and simple style.

Here are a couple of my favorite "modern landscaping" books:

Private Landscapes: Modernist Gardens in Southern California
by Pamela Burton (Author), Marie Botnick (Author), K. Smith (Introduction)

The Modern Japanese Garden
by Michiko Rico Nose

I haven't checked out this book yet (but, it looks promising):

Making the Modern Garden
by Christopher Bradley

Future Garden

2007-07-15T18:51:00.000-07:00

Here are some things we'd like to do in the near future:

Re-landscape the front yard. For now, just clean up the "flower island" in the front yard. It is a difficult to manage perennial bed. Grass keeps growing in it.
Create a worm bin.
Experiment with the sheet mulching method for creating garden beds. Maybe we'll sheet mulch a section of the front yard and it will be ready for spring planting?
Grow more fruit. Add the following to our yard: blueberries, raspberries, fig tree, cherry tree, peach tree, pear tree...
Start an asparagus bed - fresh asparagus in the spring is such a treat.
Use cover crops during the winter months.
Grow a fragrant citrus. It could stay in the Courtyard Garden during the summer months. We could bring it inside during the winter.
Plant native plants that are also edible and medicinal.
Grow better roses. We have six roses on the property. They were planted by the previous residents. They are doing ok. Black spot seems to be a perpetual problem with them though. I used to grow some high quality hybrid tea roses in Florida. They were great for cutting and photographing!

Courtyard Garden

2007-07-15T18:20:00.001-07:00

Our house has a interior coutyard that is open to the sky. It is also refered to as the atrium.

We have the following growing in the atrium: heliotrope, elephant ears, cannas,vibrant green sweet potato vine, black lace elderberry, golden bleeding heart, an assortment of ferns, nasturtiums, aralia japonica and nicotiana.

I could probably make a garden out of river rock. Maybe next year?

Side Garden

2007-07-15T17:48:00.000-07:00

The west side yard has been a weedy mess since we bought the property. We didn't know exactly what to do with it. Friends of ours suggested putting a lap pool in this area. (I would really like that. But, alas, we don't have the budget for the pool - yet!)

So, about a month ago, I took the shovel out to the side yard. Within two days I had dug three beds that were approximately 5 foot by 5 foot. I amended the beds with compost, chicken manure, coconut fiber and orgainic fertlizers.

I planted corn, pumpkins, summer squash, bush beans, sunflowers and flowers to attract pollinators in this area.

We haven't decided what to use for the paths and borders around these beds. So, now it still looks like a "dirt garden". Maybe we'll just put down some mulch?

For this garden, we used variations of the following methods or practices: french intensive, companion planting, potager and edible landscaping.

Path Garden

2007-07-15T17:39:00.001-07:00

The back corner of our East side yard has become the Path Garden.

This garden is a triangular shaped area that used to host a large, mostly dead birch tree. It now has a winding path and raised beds.

The following plants are now living in the Path Garden: corn, bush beans, sunflowers, swiss chard and flowers to attract pollinators.

This garden will also be the place where we grow must of the fall and winter greens. I'll be planting collards, kale and other such leafy delectables there soon.

To create this garden, we did the following:

Leveled the soil with and adze, shovel and rake.
Put down about four to six layers of newspaper, paper bags and cardboard - this acts a light blocker to kill the weeds - the paper also is an earthworm magnet - we wet the paper as we put it down so that it would not blow away.
Used a garden hose to mark out a path through the garden - put mulch down where the path should be.
Put down a soil mix including organic compost, coco fiber, organic fertilizer and manure in the areas where the beds should be.

For this garden, we used variations of the following methods or practices: sheet mulching, french intensive, companion planting, potager and edible landscaping.

This photo shows the Box Garden and the Path Garden:

We are going to put down pea gravel around the boxes. There are pumpkins growing in the ground next to the boxes. (They are in the little circles surrounded by stones - we will probably just use rocks to make little raised beds for the pumpkins - that should keep the pea gravel away from them). We still need to find a way to "visually integrate" the two gardens and the path.

Box Garden

2007-07-15T17:34:00.000-07:00

We cleared the weeds from part of our back yard lawn this spring. Then we built three 4 foot by 4 foot boxes, filled the boxes with a soil mix that included humus from Nature's Needs and then planted some seed and transplants.

In the Box Garden we are experimenting with the Square Foot Gardening method.

The plants you can see in the photo are a combination of hot and sweet peppers, stevia, cinnamon basil, bush beans and bush sweet peas. The lettuces, onions and carrots have just sprouted so you can't really see them in this photo. In the past month most of these plants have doubled in size.

In the other two boxes we are growing the following: tomatoes, cucumbers, four different types of basil, dill, peppers, watermelons, cantaloupe, lettuces, bush beans, romano beans, onions, carrots and various green leafy vegetables.

Herb Garden

2007-07-15T17:28:00.000-07:00

Last spring (May 2006) we decided to turn the stump ridden, weedy patch of land next to the back yard deck into an experimental vegetable, herb and flower garden. So, I dug some beds around the perimeter and the center, amended the soil, made some bark paths and planted some transplants. Three months later we had more pumpkins, tomatoes, lettuces, squash, peppers, cucumbers and herbs than we could use.

For this garden, we used variations of the following methods or practices: french intensive, companion planting, potager and edible landscaping.

In the above photo you can see that the flower mix (under the apple tree) has just started to come up. The rocks around the back bed were all discovered in our yard. The stump, next to the apple tree, has been covered with two pieces of blue slate. You can sit on the stump and take photographs of the bees and flowers now. In the top right corner of the photo, you can see part of the Box Garden.

The Bonnie Brae Project has a Garden

2007-07-15T16:51:00.000-07:00

It is July in Beaverton, Oregon. Our backyard garden is already starting to show some promise. Maybe soon we'll be dining on fresh squash, corn and beans? Let's not forget the watermelon, the cucumbers, the greens of all shapes and sizes.

This blog will focus on our personal gardens, garden practices and other garden wonders.

We moved into our house in August 2005. Since then we have created five named gardens on our urban lot. They are the Herb Garden, the Box Garden, the Path Garden,the Side Garden and the Courtyard Garden. The first blog entries will focus on our current gardens.

This blog is a companion to The Bonnie Brae Project, the blog about our modern house restoration.