Epipactis gigantea ‘Serpentine Night’
ORCHIDACEAE, The Orchid family

This unusual beauty has been blooming for a few weeks. The foliage is so gorgeous I didn’t have many expectations beyond that, so I was pleasantly surprised by the trusses of rust and gold blooms it put out. It’s a North West native orchid that grows in the Columbia River Gorge. Like many orchids in North America it is terrestrial, happy to live in soil, as opposed to many tropical orchids. The kinds bought as decorations are epiphytic and get their nutrients and moisture from rainfall and nutrients leaching through the canopy.

This orchid is hardy to USDA zone 6 or so and likes moist soil in partial shade. It may go dormant during the dry season. I planted it between a hardy impatiens and a purple veined fern, with a codonopsis vine off to the side and a hardy gardenia which will be a nice back drop if it every grows.

Lacy phacelia
Phacelia tanacetifolia
BORAGINACEAE, The Borage family

Erik Blender opened his garden this evening for a permaculture meet-up and this was one of the many of the beneficial insect plants growing there. Like mine, his food forest/garden system is in its third year. He had some compacted soil and slopes to deal with in the small space but has established fruit, berries, perennials and reseeding annuals with an emphasis on medical plants. It was interesting to see the medicinal products he has made: rosemary oil and tincture, comfrey oil for traumatic injury, St. John’s wort oil, fireweed tea and others.

Like many permaculture gardens the process leaves a messy look. Diversity is high and is not yet balanced with order or a design sensibility. This sometimes evolves as gardens mature and sheet mulching and raw soil gives way to more ground cover and cleaner, more refined surfaces. Reseeding and spreading plants are edited or keep in check by fuller permanent plants.

In my garden I have moved away from composting at one site as I have more biomass to process and am mulching many weeds and trimming near the source. By chopping these up fairly finely they are more attractive and more readily available to soil organisms. Permaculture is a paradigm shift and I often feel like I work in the balance between the cultural contexts of ornamental gardens and eco-system models. For instance, what is the difference between hugelkulture and a brush heap in your front yard? Intention and whether or not your neighbors call in a complaint.

Luckily Erik has interested and supportive neighbors and his little farm is thriving. He has three wonderful black chickens whose pen and coop he moves seasonally and makes a new garden bed where it had been: a slow moving chicken tractor.  Unlike many urban gardeners, his aim is not to grow all his own food or to focus on annual vegetable production. Since his space is limited, he is happy to support local farmers when he buys vegetables and invest in long-term production and medicinal plants on his property.

A beautiful hike at Grassy Knoll today with clear views, eventually, of Mt. Adams. There were lots of flowers in bloom and the promise of a very bountiful berry season ahead. We saw serviceberry, thimbleberry, huckleberry and strawberry among others.

Wednesdays are my harvesting days, in addition to grabbing herbs and things for dinners. We’ve found it’s easier to make use what we have in the garden when it’s time to make a meal if it’s picked, washed and ready to use.

Here’s a list of what’s ready this week, with estimated quantities:

Greens:
Lettuce – mixed leaf red, green, speckled ~2 lbs or more
Escarole, Endive, Raddichio – full heads, gorgeous! ~ 2 lbs or more. Could be grilled!
Red orach – small amount, maybe to add color to salad mix ~1/4 lb.
Kale – Tuscan and/or Dwarf blue, still young could be used fresh or cooked ~1-2 lbs.
Wild arugula – smaller than the regular with a nutty flavor ~1/4 – 1/2 lb.

Herbs:
Cilantro – super fresh and nice ~ 1/2 lb.
Parsley – small amount
Oregano – mild or spicy ~ 1/2 lb.

Other:
Sugar pod peas – maybe 1 lb.
Spring onion, ‘Apache Purple’ (thin like a scallion) ~ 1/2 lb.
Rhubarb – 2 lbs.
Alpine strawberries ~ 1/8 lb. For dessert garnish

Hey folks, it’s time. I accidentally grew 100 more tomato plants than I have room for in my garden, and they are looking for good homes! See the list of varieties here.

The weather is supposed to be beautiful this weekend and it is actually now time here in Portland to start planting heat-loving crops like tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. The nights will still be cool (which they hate), and we’ll still have some excessively wet days, but it will be okay. The tomato starts are nice and big and ready to get in the ground. They have been so cozy in the greenhouse and got a lot of loving attention while I’ve been traveling.

I  will also have some other veggie and flower starts, herbs and extra garden things for sale.

MY GARDEN

SUNDAY, JUNE 5th

10 am – 5 pm

If you need directions leave a comment here (it won’t be published) with your name and email address.

Hangy-leg wasps, also known as mud daubers, are enjoying our puddles.

Wasps keep the garden nice and clean. Parasites and pests beware these predators.

Attract them with small flowers.

Papaver nudicaule
PAPAVERACEAE, The Poppy family

These bright crepe-paper blossoms, on impossibly slender stems, are the perfect sign of spring. The popsicle-colored petals hover over mounds of wavy pale green foliage. This tempestuous time of year the weather makes flowers seem so fragile. Some of the most intrepid and earliest flowers barrenwort, columbine, bleeding heart, anemones and corydalis are also the most delicate in form.

Signs of spring in the Northwest start well before the Equinox. Right after the holidays a few flowering trees start blooming and bulbs slowly start to show. By now there are camellias, the early rhoddies like ‘PJM’, forsythia, flowering plums and lots of bulbs in color. While that is interesting and heartening, the subtle gradations of seasonal cycle make it feel less complete somehow. Growing up in the Midwest I expect more austerity from winter, a deeper, darker, whiter downtime. And the rush that accompanies the first flock of robins, who arrive puzzled every year at the snow that remains, is intense. And important – the first kid in our family to see a robin would get a treat, or kudos? I don’t remember. The first crocus snout pushing up, the blades of green grass in the lawn, the swelling of buds that the thaw brings feels like a miracle.

Spring here is less transcendent but more exuberant. The party colors of the shrubs and flower trees, and these poppies, give a carnevale feel. At this point in the long rainy season saturating one’s retinal cones with hues of surreal intensity feels wonderful.

Iceland poppies like cool weather. They will come back a few years in a row in mild climates with good drainage, but they reseed too if you let them. This variety is compact – just 10″ tall.

Lycopersicon esculentum
SOLANACEAE, The Nightshade family

It’s time to start tomato seeds! Two of the varieties I’m trying are greenhouse types from England. They must be very special because one package had 10 seeds and the other had 6, and they cost $2.99 and $2.79! I plan to keep several of each of these varieties in 5 gallon pots in my unheated greenhouse the whole season, and see how they produce in that environment, with extra warmth day and night and protection from rain.

The big full moon is tomorrow, so it actually might have been best to start a week or two ago, as the waxing moon cycle draws up water and speeds germination. Faster sprouting means less time for the seed to be in a stage that is especially vulnerable to fungal disease.

*’Vilma’ –  95 days – Bush type (determinate) with cherry sized red fruits. Heavy crop over a long period.
*’Cherrola’ – 60 days – Vine type (indeterminate) with cherry sized, dark red fruits. Outstanding flavor.

Other varieties for this year’s garden:
‘Early Girl’ – 55 days – A classic, good producer that is truly early and disease resistant
‘Sweet 100′ – 60 days – A favorite cherry type
‘Tigerella’ – 60 days – Small, striped fruits. Heirloom.
*’Stupice’ – 60 days – Developed for the Pacific Northwest
‘Sun Gold’ – 65 days – Sweet gold cherry type
*’Falcorosso’ – 65 days – Also a good greenhouse type. Plum shape, disease resistant hybrid.
*’Violet Jasper’ – 70 days – Chinese variety, purple skin with green stripes. Small fruits, highly productive
‘Chocolate Drop’ – 70 days – Large, dark cherry type with great flavor
‘Green Zebra’ – 75 days – I just love these tangy, pretty fruits. Medium size with yellow stripes.
*’Persimmon’ – 80 days – Large yellow fruits. Heirloom.
*’Speckled Roman’ – 85 days – Paste type with yellow stripes. Excellent flavor. Can be stuffed. Heirloom.

*New to me this year, I cannot vouch for flavor or performance yet.

All are indeterminate except ‘Green Zebra’, ‘Vilma’ and ‘Falcorosso’. Not that is matters (except for how you’ll stake them) in our cool climate.

Clearly I opt for mostly early season varieties. Even though the last spring frost in Portland is early to mid-April, conditions are usually right to plant out seedlings in late May (warm soil, relatively warm nights, drier weather). The number of days to maturity counts from when the transplants are set out, not when the seed is planted. So count back 6 to 8 weeks from the end of May, and seeds should be started late March/Early April. If you have adequate light (ie. grow lights or a bright greenhouse) and space for all the starts to be potted up from cell packs to pots, then a little earlier is fine.

March 15 has always been my target date to start the solanaceous seeds (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc.), even in Minnesota where the average last frost date is a full month later. But they don’t waste time there: the soil promptly dries and warms. With the warm nights through the summer and higher humidity, it’s actually way easier to grow tomatoes there. In fact I am trying to limit the amount of time and energy I put into tomato growing here, or at least manage expectations. My family used to can 60 gallons of tomatoes a year in St. Paul. Not jars, gallons. With about 30 plants in tall wire cages, the harvest was abundant even in a so-so year. And the warmth influences flavor too.