Dirty laundry?

Now that we're switching from grass stains to mud puddles . . . the dirty laundry just keeps piling up. Do you use those laundry stain sticks to clean up the tough messes?

You might be interested to know that a good old bar of handmade soap does a great job on those tough stains, and it's already sitting in your shower. I've found it works great on just about everything - from greasy food stains, wine spills, outdoor play time, to blood streaks.  Just dampen the clothing, rub in a bar of soap all over the stain, and keep rubbing a bit, sudsing up and re-wetting if needed until the stain begins to fade out.  Takes just a few seconds.  Then throw it in the laundry load and you're good to go.  Just like a stain stick only a whole lot cheaper, more effective and nothing chemical. Bingo!

Snails - aww, now I want to cuddle them

It's spring here in Seattle.  And as I was clearing out my potting bench last week, and tidying up the patio that was abandoned all winter, I came across plenty of the slimy snails and slugs.

Credit: Ukrainian photographer Vyacheslav Mishchenko

In previous seasons, I had declared them my enemies. Some mornings I'd awaken to find an entire pot of my beloved flowers eaten to bits by the dreaded slimers. They leave a wake of goo and are voracious chewers, especially those big snails. But they only eat the good stuff.  Never have I seen them eat a single weed type leaf out there.  So when I see one, I usually "snuff it out" (sounds better than outright stomp them or snip them with garden scissors, ewwwww).

Some have even found their way into my basement studio during the winter.  I pulled out a box that I had close to the floor of older discontinued sprays and one of those little buggers (or heck, his whole family) had gotten hungry and eaten the labels off them.  Maybe they could digest the paper? Or had a hankering for glue? I don't know, but they were covered in slug trails and there were only bits and scraps of labels left on the bottles.

Then I found this photo journal and my world has turned upside down. This man has the most clear and up close photos of snails I've ever seen.  And they are kissing each other, and hugging cherries, and grasping their little arms around stuff. The antennas are adorable. Oh my God. I've had a total moment.  They are so sweet I want to run out right now and feed one a pansy. I will never be able to kill another one of those things again.  Not personally anyway.

Ok, totally honest? I still might have to put out a little pet-friendly slug bait if they eat all the tops off my echinacea patch.  But I won't be able to look to see what happens.

Besotted with the Drunken Botanist

Have you heard about the new book titled The Drunken Botanist?  It's apparently all over the place, including the New York Times bestseller list.  I don't know how I missed it up to now, but it's so hard to keep up with everything.

Amy Stewart has already written books, six I think, like Wicked Bugs - all about the natural world.  But she had an epiphany while visiting a liquor store - every kind of spirit in there was made of some sort of plant material. In fact, most of them were made from a rather large variety of plants - grains, herbs, flowers, etc.  Inspiration for another book, plus a lot of fun experimenting with cocktail recipes as "research".

She believes that knowing more about what goes into the glass - the origins, history, stories and traditions - can lead to better-made drinks.  The Drunken Botanist includes 50 drink recipes, as well as recipes for syrups, infusions and garnishes such as refrigerator pickles and maraschino cherries.  The drink recipes are simple and classic, emphasizing variations that highlight a particular plant's use in liquor.

Amy also includes growing information for many of the ingredients/plants.  And Territorial Seed Co. has created a plant collection of her favorites, grouped by liquor of course.  I found the little plant starter packs at Sorticulture last weekend and was instantly smitten.

There's the Old Havana Rum collection, the Farmer's Market Garden Vodka collection, the Heart of Agave Tequila collection, the Southern Belle whiskey collection, and the Old Tom Gin collection.  I ended up with that last one - mostly because I already was growing a bunch of plants in those other collections.  Such sweet little herbs and veggies in all of them - mine has some adorable Mexican sour gherkins that look like miniature watermelons, but taste like zesty cukes.



There were also Mixologist plant collections - filled with herbs for infusing and making simple syrups.  Again, I already had most of these herbs in my yard, so I didn't buy one of those plant sets.  But the whole idea is so up my alley.  I love to infuse liquors - do it all year round.  Make my own pickles too.  Just made a few jars of chive blossom and oregano vinegars last week that are marinating for the next month.  I'm really excited to get into this gardener / mixologist cocktail stuff!


Want to know more?

Great NPR Interview.
Her so-called never-ending speaking tour schedule.
Plus you can follow her on Pinterest, where she's got a ton of cocktail recipes.  Cheers!

Soap Scum Killer

If you love and use handmade soaps in the tub/shower, then you know the awful truth - soap leaves soap scum.  That grimy, fugly stuff that accumulates on your tiles and your porcelain or your glass shower door.  It's inevitable, but not fun.

If you are not experiencing soap scum, then you are probably using something on your body that is detergent-based, rather than soap-based.  Which means that it is formulated to break down grease and dirt, rather than just dirt.  It's a little tweak in the chemistry - used for laundry detergents and dish detergents, where it's a really great thing.  But not as great on your body.

Detergent can be sort of harsh on a person's body - breaking down your own natural skin oils and stripping you to the point of scratchy, itchy, dry.  Yet keeping your shower more shiny and sparkly for weeks longer!

It's the lovely nutrient oils in handmade soap that give you the moist, fresh, dewy, young-looking skin.  With good quality soap, you don't have to spend a small fortune on creams and lotions to un-do all the damage a harsh, commercial soap, especially a detergent-type soap, does.

The trade-off is that you need to clean your shower more often.  And if you're in the mode of being all natural, non-toxic, earth-friendly and green already, then the last thing you want is to use harsh chemicals in your shower which smell awful and come into contain with your skin anyway - totally defeating the whole purpose.

I have the solution:  Vinegar and dish soap.  Give up all your expensive shower cleaning products and buy a big jug of plain white vinegar, which costs like $3 at Cash & Carry or Walmart or somewhere.  And a large size bottle of dish soap - most recipes swear by the Blue Dawn liquid, but I've used others that were scent-free or clear, and they all work.

Take an empty spray bottle (also available for very cheap at your big box type stores).  Fill it half full with vinegar.  Then add the dish soap.  If you do it the other way, you will be fighting all kinds of suds and not be able to get the ratio right.  I know - I've done this. It should be approximately half and half.  I've read recipes where they microwave the vinegar first for a few seconds to get it warm.  I did, in fact, try this the first time.  It stunk so bad in the microwave and getting a whiff of that up your nose accidentally can ruin you for a long time, ya know? So I went cold turkey the next time, and it's just as good.

Then spray liberally.  Some people swear by leaving it on for half an hour.  But again, I've tested this, and gone right ahead and scrubbed immediately - getting pretty much the same results but less "pickle" smelling bathroom.

Scrub if it needs scrubbing with a little scrub brush.  Or wipe glass doors with a sponge.  Do what you think you need to for whatever surface and grime amount you've got.  Rinse well with hot/warm water.  Repeat if you've got a real build-up - which I did the first time.  Now I do a little squirt once a week and it's squeaky clean floors.  I don't even mind the pickle smell.

In this old house we have a crappy drain too - which is almost always slow and starting to gather water around your ankles.  But the vinegar/dawn solution helps with that too.  Which is great, because I hate using Drano-like things.

So if you've tried the lovely handmade soaps, but gotten scared off by the scum issue - here's an inexpensive and easy way to make both yourself and your bathroom cleaner and happier.  You're welcome. :O

Flower and Garden Show

This week is the Northwest Flower and Garden show at the Convention Center.  I don't usually go to this show but I love gardening and all things plants, so I was excited to see it this year.

My friend, Dianne Kimball, makes pottery and garden art.  She is doing the show this year for the first time, and I went down for a couple of days to help her out and give her a break since the hours are so long for one person to work a booth themselves.  With a free pass, I had the chance to mosey around and see the sights too.  What a treat!

I always think the display gardens are way too dark.  There's so little light in that area that you can hardly read the little plant signs, or see what's planted towards the back.  And it's impossible to take a good picture.  Maybe that's why they do it?  So people don't take photos and copy all their designs?  I don't know.  It's "mood" lighting and very dramatic, but not so great for actually seeing up close what is in there.

One of them had a very cool hobbit house, but Megan Black was filming a promo in the middle of it when I was there, and I couldn't get close enough to get a pic or see the whole thing.  Never could get over there when there wasn't a herd of people planted in front of it.

But here's a few pics of other cool gardens, mostly the displays in the very well lighted glass walkway between buildings:

I'm so excited to plant stuff in my own garden now.  I already had big plans to move stuff around and do new things.  I haven't really done a lot with it lately except maintenance, but this year is going to be different.  Big ideas.  If only it would get warmer and spring would arrive.  The cold, grey drizzle here is getting so very old.

I had to move a few things around last week.  Crappy story - the water line from the city sidewalk to our house cracked and had been leaking (rather pouring) down the sidewalk for the last few weeks.  We had problems with that water before and both times it wasn't our water, but the neighbors.  So we assumed it wasn't us again this time.  But alas, it was.  We had to put in a whole new water line.  Which required removing part of our rockery wall, and huge holes dug in all over the front yard.  Plus it cost a ridiculous amount of money too.  Ugh.  More than ugh.

When they finished and piled all the dirt back, I found a lot of broken stuff, and had to move a couple of big heathers - just trying to get things back together for now.  But I've got pictures in my head about what I'd like to do this spring.  I'm dying to have one of those gorgeous little rustic salvaged sheds built out back.  Probably don't have enough space.  For sure there will be more beds to grow food.  My lettuces were too small in pots.  I need a few more herbs.   All kinds of moving around to freshen it up and get the tired perennials better spots and better shape.  Plus color.  Lots more color.  Year round color.  Can't wait.

Program Notes

Well, that's assuming I actually DO have a program going on over here. Mostly it's been a mix of slacking and revving up for fall.

The slacking part came after the Anacortes show at the beginning of the month. It was the best ever, and I needed some time after that to just recuperate from it all. A weekend off to go camping. A few days of just taking it easy, doing the bare minimum to keep the balls in the air.

Now is the revving up part. The fall newsletter and introduction of all the fall stuff. The Puyallup Fair in September. The beginning of all the fall shows, which immediately become winter holiday hoopla etc. It's all just about to pop.

So that's what today's blog is about - the stuff about to pop. If you're thinking it's just about time for another newsletter, you're right. I'm going to send it off next Tuesday - a week from today. Nobody is really thinking about fall too much until after Labor Day weekend is out of the way. So next week will be the newsletter in the mailbox and the email inbox and also here on the blog.

The website will be updated accordingly next week, with a little different look - new colors and photos of the seasonal stuff.

And Friday of next week is the first day of the Puyallup Fair. It runs Sept 9 - 25 and I'll be back in the Artists in Action area under the grandstand. I'll do a separate post with all the details on that show next week. But this is just a heads up. Click the link above for advance info, early tickets etc. The first day is free admission from 10am to noon if you bring a donation to their food drive to the gate. Insider tip: a lot of folks rush the gates early, get their re-entry stamp and then head off to their day, coming back later in the afternoon or evening to actually do the first day of the fair. It's a huge rush, though, so you have to like crowds.

Gosh, I just can't believe it's all happening already and that summer is over and September is here. The tomatoes are still green. But the leaves are already falling off the trees and most of the garden has keeled over dead. I guess that means it's just another crap tomato year.

Well, Tally ho. Enjoy the last few days of it. Meet me back here Tuesday.

It's not really gardening -

it's more like hacking through a jungle with a machete. In fact, I'm using an axe, my wood saw and only rarely, the clippers.

I got pretty inspired by the garden show in Gig Harbor last weekend. Everyone's garden was so very lovely. And tamed. And weed-free. Oh, I know - they've worked on them like crazy people for weeks. With probably a team of helpers too. It's not like they look like that all the time. It's just for a weekend, to show off for the garden tour.

But in my fantasy world I should have a garden that looks like all those magazine spreads of fabulous cottage gardens, kitchen gardens, beach view decks with fire pit, and a huge patio with the built in kitchen, pizza oven and fireplace all spread out. Maybe a tiki bar in the corner too. In my dream house I have all of it. It's a beach-front farm with gourmet kitchen patio. Oh, I almost forgot the pool. There's one of those too. With a cabana, outdoor shower and guest house. Why limit your dreams?

Instead I have a tiny little postage stamp patio. And a teeny weeny little patch of grass with a few plants in the borders. A crunch of too many tomato plants in a corner near the back door. And then everything else at the moment is weeds higher than the fence. Or ivy slowly creeping in and covering what I thought was the front yard.

My next door neighbor is an empty lot of green things that will continue to live and take over the earth, even if we have a nuclear or global warming disaster that takes us all out. Ivy. Blackberries. Creeping morning glory or chokeweed junk. Holly trees. You can't kill them. I've tried - repeatedly. Nothing works. But the hacking is necessary, because if I don't make a tiny little dent over here on my side by the fence, then by next summer, you won't even know my house is here. The jungle will grow right over the fence, over the house and continue on.

The back yard neighbor is a rental house with kids who only stay there for 6 months or a year at a time, and nobody owns a lawn mower or any other garden type tool. They don't even go outside. So it might as well be a jungle too. In between renters, somebody comes by and hacks down the chin-tall weed-grass. But at this time of year, it's so contrained by one single yard, that it's bursting through all the little fence cracks trying to break free.

So I'm out there the last day or so trying to tame the jungle. I can't really call it "gardening." The cat's don't care.

And if you're curious about what my little casa/home studio actually looks like - here's a picture of the front today. It's a work in progress and clearly I need to do a little hacking in the front yard too.

The year of no tomatoes

It's the "year of no tomatoes." Well, to be fair, there have been just a few and they were awesome.

But this past week the weather has already changed. It's cool, cloudy and dry. The lack of heat stopped the tomato plants cold. They were just putting out a bazillion of green tomatoes - some half formed and some fully ready to start ripening. But now they have gone on break. Probably permanently. Without rain for a while, the whole garden is starting to just give up and die out. Leaves are falling and there is dead stuff everywhere. It's so depressing. Summer is over and we're heading back to the grind - fall and school and work and work and then holidays and winter, all happening so fast you can almost hear it rushing by.

Maybe I'm feeling it a little more intensely because I'm in full fall mode anyway. I've been working on the new fall products, and this weekend is the touch-ups on the fall newsletter which will come out probably by the end of the week. I've got website updates and email letters to work on too. All at the same time I'm trying to get a pile of stuff ready for the Puyallup Fair (starting Sept 10th).

Oh, and a little other tiny thing happened yesterday. I got a half a space at Bumbershoot. I was fully expecting to have one more long weekend to truly get ahead of the game for the fair, and this little gem popped up. I'll be totally scrunched for time and inventory, but it's an amazing and wonderful opportunity which I just couldn't say no to. I'll do a bigger post in a day or two when I know more. But this is a gigantic show in Seattle and I'm thrilled to get a chance to display there - even if it's a little half of a booth in a corner somewhere. More soon . . .

Gig Harbor Garden Tour

At long last, the details for the Gig Harbor Garden Tour, where I'll be selling my wares this weekend. It's organized by Tacoma Community College, located at 3993 Hunt Street in Gig Harbor. This is where the tour starts, and where you can buy tickets, get maps and directions. There are a couple of raffles going on too, so tickets are available at the desk.

I will be at house #3, Jeff and Judy Wilbert's place at 1818 Sullivan Dr in the Point Fosdick area near the water. There will be 3 of us artists at this location, set up on the driveway as you head down to the house. And there are other artists at other locations, but I'm not sure they are set up at every house. There are a total of 7 houses on this year's tour. I think. I'm just going by my written information. I've never done this before. It's a very cool idea.

Hours are 10-5 Sat and 10-4 Sun, June 26 and 27. Weather forecast is looking a little better than it was earlier in the week, which talked about rain both days. Now we've got more sunshine. Finally this week it's warmed up and given us at least 2 days in a row of sun. A real treat! The tomato plants have decided to grow again. I think they've been in hibernation the whole last month.

Oh, one more thing - you can buy tickets to the show online HERE. They are $20 if you buy them before midnight tonight. Otherwise, you need to buy them at TCC Gig Harbor when you arrive.

A little more info about the show HERE - including a downloadable guide.

Tomato Jam

Tomato jam. Best stuff ever. And it uses up a whole bunch of tomatoes that are coming at me too fast to eat fresh right now. I've made batch after batch of sauce in the last month. The little sungold cherry tomatoes, which ripen at about 100 a day, make an amazing sauce. But I've already got lots of bags of various kinds of tomato sauce in the freezer.

I've oven dried tomatoes, and frozen more tomatoes. And then yesterday I tasted some tomato jam at a restaurant -- just dotted on the plate with some cheese and a chunk of baguette. I had forgotten how delicious it is. And since I had another whole basket of tomatoes at home on the counter, I decided to make jam this morning. Oh, I'll need to do more sauce too, probably later today, and still have a few sandwiches for lunch and salads for dinner. There's still more tomatoes every day.

SInce I haven't made the jam in awhile, I googled a recipe and decided to go with Mark Bittman's recipe in the New York Times from last summer. Of course I had to make my own little tweaks to it. Mostly because I used more tomatoes than called for - so I added a touch more sugar, adjusted all the other stuff to my liking or due to pantry shortages, etc. Not too sweet, it has a kick of heat to it, and some great spices. Lordy, it came out good. And the best part? Two whole pounds of tomatoes are gone which made just these 3 little jars of jam. It will be eaten up so fast I didn't even process the jars. Just stuck them in the fridge.

Mmmmm. I just might need to make this again before the season is over. I'll want to have some of it last into the winter.

Front Page News

How funny! My plum tree is the top story of the Seattle Times today. Plum crazy - the story takes up about half of the whole front page.

I had no idea it would be such a big deal - maybe a little thing in the local section, or the life section on a Saturday. But it's great publicity for CityFruit.org, who I've mentioned here before. They are a bit overwhelmed with the the harvesting right now, because everything gets ripe at the same time. So spreading out the volunteers and pickers, delivering the fruit to all the various food banks and organizations must be a gigantic amount of work. Good for them. I hope this helps them out in some way.

This little ol' plum tree might be famous, but it's still a headache. Even though we've gotten a couple hundred pounds of fruit off of it at least, it's still loaded at the top with stuff we can't reach. And it's over-ripe now, and dropping bombs all over the sidewalk, the yard and our heads. It's getting trimmed back for next year, so I don't have to use so many poles to keep the branches off my electric wires and internet cable.

So today's story is plums. I really didn't know how many people still read the paper - we've gotten so many calls and emails this morning. A couple of cooking tips - if you're doing any cooking with them, they get brown fast. Toss them in a little lemon juice immediately. I made a delicious salad last night with slices of plums, halved cherry tomatoes (which I also have a LOT of right now), a bit of feta cheese, and a handful of mint leaves chopped. Since there was already a bunch of lemon juice on the plums, for dressing I added a teaspoon of honey, a splash of white wine vinegar and a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. Super juicy and the peak of tastiness.

Oven drying was not the best. There's a Martha Stewart recipe (and variations) all over the internet which worked out well. I substituted a spice blend with a little star anise and cinnamon for the thyme leaves. You cook them on low for 3 hours and then turn off the oven overnight. They are totally juicy and not at all dried the next day. Tasted great though, and I froze them. The second time I tried this I decided to cook them all night (at 200) like I've done for oven dried tomatoes, which come out exactly like sun-dried. That is to say, actually dry. I was aiming for more of a prune or dried fruit like thing. But they were still a bit wetter the next morning, and had a terribly bitter taste. Totally inedible. I'm sure a food dehydrator would work, but I don't have one of those.

So mostly I've cooked sauces and frozen them. Some sweet, some savory for pork and chicken later. This year I did not can them into jam. I don't like it as well - my plums just get this weird gold/brown color and it doesn't make a pretty jam. Right now I'm so sick of them, I don't want to do anything else with them. They are best just fresh off the tree, but you can only do that for so long and then you want a dang banana or an orange. Anything but another plum.

Did I mention that I fell off the ladder? Right in front of the reporter while he was taking notes for the story? No? Probably because that's the most embarrassing thing ever. Yes there was a 911 call. And a fire truck raced over with sirens blaring. Super cute guys - one named "Almond" and one named "Berry." I kid you not. We could have made a great dessert together, but they had to go back to work. I am fine. A couple of bruises, nothing major. Not even a stiff neck, no broken bones, no major head injury or body cast. I guess I got very lucky. Just a little overzealous with getting that next branch and the ladder started to tip on the un-even hill. Dumb. I know. I'm still cringeing with how stupid the whole thing was. And now there's a front page news story to remind of that happy day. With photos of my chin in color and large pixels taking up half the front section. Hoo boy.

July

Beautiful day today. Nice to have a bit of warm sunshine again after a few days of cool and cloudy.

Farmer's Market Day at Columbia City. And we've joined a CSA too, so we are up to our eyeballs in fresh produce. The best thing I've cooked this week: sauteed a summer squash with spring onions, garlic and sugar snap peas - a sprinkling of herbs de Provence tossed in. The peas stayed nice and crunchy but sweetened up even more than raw, the squash got that perfect melty brown - so delicious. There is sweet corn at the markets this week - it tastes terrible. I'll wait a while to try that again. And we're freezing flats of raspberries and blueberries to keep for winter. I got a half flat of the final strawberries of the season on Sunday. Got a few minutes to make jam on Monday evening - with a splash of balsamic and a hint of ginger. It's so yummy. The last bits in the pot that didn't fit in a jar made an amazing salad dressing, just mixed with olive oil and red wine vinegar. The perfect sweet tart for arugula, pecans and goat cheese. Oh and raspberry liqueur - we made just a little and couldn't help drinking it all once, it was that good. There will be more.

My own little garden is having a small crisis. All the squash and zuchini are catching some stupid blight or powdery mildew. I've been picking leaves, spraying with a natural spray and trying whatever I can to save them, but it seems to be moving from one plant over to the next. I'm so bummed. I have a few unusual squash and dark green pumpkins out front that I was really looking forward to. Fingers crossed I can save even a little something.

What I'm reading: Animal, Vegetable. Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and Mollie Wizenberg's new book, A Homemade Life, plus all the gossip on Michael Jackson that comes out daily. What I'm watching: the Tour de France, Wipeout, Superstars, Ghost Hunters, pretty much nothing on tv. Waiting for: Harry Potter at the Imax, ripe tomatoes, a few free days in August. What's percolating in the business: working on fall scents, finishing the fall show schedule, changes to the web site and email marketing, how to survive after a month of super crappy shows.

So that's the nutshell of what's going on here - vegetables and work. I'm buzzing around getting ready for Gig Harbor this weekend. I'll post the details on that tomorrow.

Sorticulture this weekend

I'm late in posting this. Sorry for the last minute. Lots of things going on - not the least of which was a water emergency the other day. Don't ask. Oh ok. I have to tell. I've been spending weeks on the front bushes. Taking them out I mean.

For the last month or so I've been hacking away at the two gigantic laurel bushes that were stupidly planted (not by us, the previous owners) right up against the house between the sidewalk and the foundation. For years I've battled those bushes, trimming them back like crazy, only to have them grow a foot in a week and flop over the sidewalk again. You couldn't even get to the front door anymore without trampsing through the flower bed on the other side of the walk to get in the house.

Then when we did the work downstairs we discovered the roots had come clear through the foundation and started growing in the basement. It was causing all kinds of trouble inside and out. It was time for them to go. So I decided heck yeah I can just rip them out myself. No problem. Right. I sawed and hacked each week until the giant yard waste bin was overloaded. Then the next week I did it again. I think it was a solid four weeks of branches and limbs. Until I got down to the two trunks sticking up out of the dirt. I started digging with my shovel. And axing. The first one would hardly budge.

Hopes dashed, I started calling around for stump grinders or someone to help. But since we live up a flight of stairs from the street, there was no equipment that could be used. I kept hearing "just dig it out by hand." So Saturday afternoon I donned the gloves and started in earnest. When I finally got the first trunk out I was ecstatic! Bliss! All my hard work and I finally did it - a hole in the ground!

That lasted about two whole minutes. I went back to get a piece of big-ass root that was caught up against the house foundation and it was really stuck in. Pushing and pulling, I felt a give and then whoooooosh - water started gushing up, making a swimming pool in the blink of an eye. I had dislodged the water main. My heart sank at the same time I ran for the shut off at the front curb. No budging it. Ran for the basement, muddy boots and all, to get tools. Ran back to the curb and finally got the water shut off. Emergency calls to plumbers, so sad.

Realistically, I knew that was going to happen. There was no way that giant root system was NOT wrapped around the water main line right there. It had come apart few years back for the same reason. I'm convinced that it was already slow leaking, the dirt seemed much damper than it should have been for that dry spot under the eaves.

What happened next was hours of panic and frantic calls. In a nutshell, there are no parts for that stupid piece of pipe from the street. They tried to convince me I needed to spend thousands and dismantle my new landscaping walls to re-dig the main line. I tried to convince them that I was not stupid and not rich. They then found a lovely fitting that worked, and a nice solid piece of copper pipe and fixed it for me. A few hundred bucks. Not a few thousand. I'm good to shower. But almost had a heart attack.

My next project? Removing a clump of bamboo that's like 30 feet high and crammed in a two foot space between the house and the patio up against the fence (again, bone-headed move of the previous owners, not me). I've spent hours the last few days trying to find a rescuer. But I'll still be digging the rhizomes out for months and years anyway. It's poking up through the patio stones again this summer, dropping leaves and messy junk all over my dinner and I just can't live with it any more. But it's beautiful and it should have a much roomier home. So we're trying to find a new owner for it.

Oh, and I'm doing a show this weekend. A gardening show. Did I forget to mention it? That was the whole purpose of the blog today. Sorticulture. If you like plants and gardening, you really should go. It's gorgeous and fabulous, filled with rare finds, new and lovely plants, garden art, funky stuff. Everett, this weekend. Link to all the seminars and talks and special guests and entertainment HERE. Plus hours and directions and map and stuff. It's free and the view is beautiful from that park up there. I so look forward to this show every year.

Summer Heat

It's been hot around here the last few days. The tomatoes, peppers, basil and pumpkins are really happy, and growing several inches a day.

I don't mind the hot, especially when we begged for sunshine for so long. And I'm not complaining about having to water the garden every day either. It's one of my favorite things to do in the morning, to check out how much has grown and what's new, the cats racing past the sprayer playing their daredevil games. Louie especially likes to outrun the water droplets and crosses back and forth under the hose spray. Hiding behind big leaf plants, she waits until I just get to her spot - waiting, waiting, as the spray gets closer until the first drops hit her in the nose, then leaping out, racing around again.

The greenery is suddenly so, well green. It seems like just a few weeks ago when there was hardly anything alive out there and now it's a jungle, a tangle of vines and drooping foliage and big fronds everywhere. The flower pots have suddenly gone from measly little starts dwarfed in their container to big frumpy masses of blossoms. It's lovely and wonderful.

Of course everyone keeps saying, "well you know it won't last - we always have rain in June." I try not to listen to them. Of course it will rain at some point, and that's fine. All this lushness needs a good soaking now and then. But I'm not hoping for a month of drizzle ahead, like I think the rain-lovers around here are. I think it's going to be a good month, and I'll be eating ripe, juicy little nuggets of cherry tomatos in no time.

The poppies popped!

Oh my, we've had such gorgeous weather, especially for a holiday weekend. I know that was days ago, but I'm catching up. I had to work a small show Friday, but had the long weekend off, and I didn't work a lick. Just enjoyed the lovely weather, hanging out with friends, and grilling with the family. I can't remember when we've ever had a Memorial Day holiday with all three days of sunshine and warm weather. What luck!

Tuesday was a blur of orders, calls, emails and work. The big summer show season is just beginning, and I've got two weeks before it truly becomes a non-stop slog, with back-to-back shows every weekend for months. I'm trying to gear up, get inventory built up, and be ready for it. But there's so much gardening and lazing about to do.

I've planted a mix of radishes in an old drawer, and they need to be thinned. Those little sprouts make the nicest salad, especially with the mint tops that keep shooting up several inches a day.



And I've got a mix of baby lettuces just starting to pop out - planted in a couple of wire locker baskets. Looks like they need to be thinned and rearranged too. And all those squashes, pumpkins and tomatoes need to be watered while the weather is hot and sunny. There's no time for work!



By the way, yes the raccoon has been back to visit. He likes to toss my buckets and pots over and roll them around the yard in the wee hours of the morning. And in all my slug hunting (which has made great progress) I've come to the conclusion that it was the snails that ate most of my petunias. Wow, great big snails. I hadn't seen them before. Double ewww.

Farm Day

Saturday was the Harvest Celebration here, where dozens of local farms were open for tours, special demonstrations, chefs cooking in the fields, petting of the animals and milking of the goats. Most of them are CSA's, which are community sponsored farms - you buy a share for a few months or a season, which makes you sort of an investor in the farm while they grow the crops, and you get a fresh box of produce and flowers weekly. That way they have funds to operate and a guaranteed market, and you get locally grown, organic, fresh food from folks you know. It's a great plan all around.

We've been wanting to do this for a while now, but just hadn't worked out which farm - there's so many it's hard to choose. And we needed a beautiful sunny day in the fields just to enjoy the final warm days of September. So we headed out, tramped around and bought veggies, cheese, and honey. We found one farm that we can volunteer hours as compensation for the CSA, which would be a whole lot more fun. You head over for 4 hours a week and work at the farm, receiving the same box of goodies each week. We're definitely going to do that next summer, but in the meantime, we're figuring out another farm to sign up with during the winter.

Such a gorgeous day. Cool to see all the families that brought kids out to see the animals and fields, do a little pea picking to see where the food comes from, and choose pumpkins and spooky gourds.

I would love to have my own little tiny farm - not a big one, but just someplace with a little more land than my postage stamp in the city. I'd love to grow more of my own food, but I don't have the space or enough direct sun in any one area besides a few tomato plants. At the moment I'm plotting a little corner for a worm bin. And maybe a raised bed over on the side for a zucchini plant or a row of carrots next year. I've grown them before, but it's more work than stopping at the farmer's market, which usually has a way better selection anyway. I don't know - with all this talk about recession and depression and economic meltdown, it makes me want to plant potatoes and cabbages in the front lawn and start canning stuff.

Apple Blossom Explosion

After the snow and storms of the previous week, it's amazing to see what a few short days of "normal" temperatures and one nice, sunny day on Saturday brings. My garden has exploded with blooms. All the plants seem to have doubled in size since Thursday. The lilac bush completely opened up over night. And the tight little apple blossom buds on the tree next door have exploded into huge, pink and white flowers. So much prettiness is hard to take in. I have to keep looking out the windows, from room to room, just to see it from another angle.

The summer newsletter is almost here. I just got it back from the printer, am stuffing and sticking, and it should head out Wednesday. I'll post it here too, and I'll be working on all the web site updates in the next couple of days. So if you see something wonky on the site, it's me. Everything happens live, and I'll be monkeying around with it off and on the next day or so. Pay no attention to the wild swings in colors and mumbo jumbo.

Other bits:

I got word that I'm accepted into the Bellevue 6th Street Fair again this year. Yippee!

I am re-starting an email mailing list. I had one long, long ago and it wasn't that great. This time around I'm working with Constant Contact and it should be super whiz-bang. Professional web site looking newsletters. And I've got big plans for special offers, coupon type thingies and discounts, all kinds of bait to get people to join and keep coming back. Stay tuned - the announcement is in the newsletter and you can already sign up HERE now. I'm doing a little crash course in how to work their programs, but it isn't that hard now that I'm a pro in the web site workings and blogger :) I'll be sending out email updates monthly and will do a welcome one in May for the first folks who join in the fun.

Next week - Monday through Friday each day - I'll be setting up my own little shop at the Group Health campus on Capitol Hill. It will be my own little version of a Spring/Mother's Day style gift shop, with mostly my full line of products, but some plants, flowers, vases, greeting cards and things too. I really hope it's a success and more than just a couple of nurse on their lunch break stop by. Here are the details if you can get a minute to duck in and say hello:

Spring Fling Gift Boutique

The package said parsley

When we re-landscaped the front yard earlier this year, I had an area along the top that I wanted to fill with herbs. Lavender along the sidewalk, big pots of mint - Mediterranean Mint, Peppermint and Chocolate Mint, two kinds of basil, and then a 6-pack of Italian parsley. I love to put the big flat leaf parsley in all kinds of things, so I wanted several plants, and spaced them along the top.

It took a while to really get rooted well and fluff out. About a month ago, I decided that it was ready for a big snipping for potato salad. Weird parsley - the leaves were so large. Turns out, it's really celery. I've never grown celery before. Mostly because I don't even like it. I use occasionally in things, like stews, cajun stuff, chicken salads. But it's pretty tasteless, a useless watery crunchy bit. So now that I'm a celery farmer, I don't know what to do with it.

This stuff isn't like your regular grocery store stuff either. It's much smaller stalks, harder, tougher and stringier. I've been chopping a few outer stalks and trying to use them in salads or something. I've even thrown some of the younger leaves in things too, trying to pretend it's still parsley. Maybe in another month it will be bigger and juicier. Or maybe I've just got a row of garnish to deal with.

I love my new camera . It's a little digital Nikon Coolpix S50 in the groovy exclusive chocolate brown color. So sleek and crisp. I'm hoping to raise the bar on my picture taking skills with it (see? this celery shot ain't no medal winner). I'm a total novice with composition, lighting, focus etc. So it's going to be a learning curve for sure - but this little baby will do a much better job than my old dinosaur held together with packing tape :) Tally ho. I'm off to photograph the carpet, a million pictures of the cats, every plant in the yard, breakfast, my knees . . .

Sunset Evenings

Days in the middle of June seem to go on forever. Tonight's sunset, overlooking the Everett waterfront from Legion Park tonight as I was leaving the show -- gorgeous.

The day started with crappy rain, which lasted until mid-afternoon. It dampened the crowds a little, but there were still bunches of early birds, pecking around for the rare species plants and one-of-a-kind garden goodies. And then the sun came out and everything shined.

What a pretty little show. Of course I bought a few plants. They've got wonderous things - like Kangaroo Apples which will grow 6 ft in a single season, bearing both purple flowers and little green crabapple looking thingies. There are dahlia folks, rose folks, fuschia folks. People who specialize in sedums, or hostas, bamboo or shade plants. Fabulous glass. Garden sculptures. Paving stones, fountains, birdhouses and recycled machinery people. It's all there. Plus the big ol' patio of antiques and garden junk treasures. And tomorrow should be even more kicking - come check it out!

R.I.P.

I'm so heartbroken. Dora caught one of the little hummingbirds yesterday, right after I wrote about them. Sob, sniff.

She's such a dork, she has to bring in all her outdoor toys. I think she must have some kind of dog marbles in her little gumball machine, because she's such a nut about chewing sticks, pieces of bark, carrying around bamboo pieces in her mouth. And she pops in the window with them to play around in the house with whatever chunk of junk she's found.

At night all this week it's been moths. She's moved from flies to moths. She bats them down, picks them up in her mouth, hops in the window and then tortures the flapping bugs around my bedroom for hours. But yesterday, just as I was leaving the house, I went to lock up and she was smacking something next to the shoes on the bedroom carpet. Oh God, it was a baby hummingbird. I think. I'm not sure if the babies are actually out yet, but it looked smaller than the ones I've been watching.

Maybe they just look tinier when they are stiff on the floor, and not winging around the garden. Anyway, I grabbed it fast and scurried it away. She was so befuddled that her toy had suddenly disappeared. She had her entire head in a shoe pushing it around, one after the other, trying to find her little buzzy toy that was just there. But I was devastated and ran outside to shout my apologies to the heavens . . . or the trees. And there was one lonely hummingbird, high up in a branch, clicking forlornly. Oh God. What if that was his/her mate? Or their baby? I couldn't stand it.

So last night I did a bunch of googling of hummingbird habits. I'm only slightly relieved to know that they are not romantic birds and do not mate for life. Or for more than the act, really. The males have a territory. The females drive by, watch their high flying act, and decide if it's entertaining enough to want to mate with him. If not, they move on. If they do mate, that's about it. The female does every single bit of the nest building, the child rearing and the feeding. They have about 3 babies and most don't live to see a year. The few that do, have a life span of tops 3 or 4 years. From what I could find. But they are supposed to be smart birds. They recognize places, even people, when they come back the following year.

I really, really hope that they have figured out how to avoid the dumb cats. I know they watch me when I'm out. But they always seem so comfortable when I'm standing right in front of the plant they like the most. Maybe that will change and they'll move off. I feel so horrible about planting all these lovely plants that they like and making it attractive for them, and then having them picked off by my stupid pets. What can I do now? I left the cats out all night last night so they'll sleep the entire day today. Hopefully. And not be so wound up and hunting today while I'm gone.

It was a new plant that bloomed huge red tulip-y flowers just outside my bedroom window. They realized that the birds could see them when they stalked from the window sill, because they were eye level. I found Dora twice yesterday afternoon sitting in the very base of the plant, hiding, waiting, eyes glued upwards. She can hear when they are feeding at the other bush, and just waits expectantly in the shadows until they come over to her plant. They don't see her until it's too late and she's already pounced and batted them out of the sky. I know that's how she did it, that bugger.

No matter how much I've stopped them, and scolded them, and dragged them away, they still don't get the difference between the hummers, the bumbles and the moths. Ugh.

So anyway - I set up Sorticulture yesterday. I was pretty early and only a few tents were going up - but there was a lovely display of antiques and garden junk, lots of plant people, rusted metal stuff, birdhouses and structure stuff, super cute. I'm really excited about seeing the rest of it today. Even though it's raining again, double ugh. The plants like it and gardener's won't care about a little drizzle. But I HATE standing outside all day in the dripping rain trying to keep the soap dry. HATE. In case I hadn't mentioned it. Which is pretty stupid since I live in Seattle and have chosen a life of selling stuff outside, where it rains. A lot.

Wish me luck that I won't spend every last dime I make on more yard items and plants I don't have room for! We start at noon today -- goes til 8pm. There will be plenty of sunbreaks later in the day :)