Eggscaping
Enjoying Life!
Some of you have read the posts by New Boots and I about selling our Portland home of 29 years and moving to Lakeside, Oregon, where we will finally build a coop and run and get a flock of chickens!
Well, we are in Lakeside now, on a double COMPLETELY BARE lot (and we love to garden). The chickens will happen next spring after a fall and winter's time to build the coop and run, but for now, we plant.
Today we visited a wonderful nursery in Coos Bay, run by an awesome 80-something gentleman who walked us through his gardens. It went something like this:
"Oh my gosh, look at that blooming cardinalis! And those manzanitas! Get the silvery one and the red bark one to start. And...is that an aloe? Look at the color of the flowers! What's that, Mister Gardener? This plant has gorgeous foliage in the spring and hosts HOW MANY species of native butterfly larvae in the spring? We must have one of those! Oh good grief, that penstemon is to die for! And those hardy fuscias! And...and...smell the foliage on this agastache - and it's covered in skipper butterflies! Yes, we want five pounds of white clover seed to sow in our mongrel grass so the bees can have clover blooms and the soil can be enriched with nitrogen! Oh, yes, please add at least one pot of calendula - the hummingbirds love the pretty blue blooms!"
We are lucky to have found a gentleman who is happy to be paid to dig many, many holes around the perimeter of the yard so we can start our hedgerows - the ground here is mostly sand, so we have to amend, but the digging is the hard part, at our age/s. And next spring, rabbits and chickens will add to enriching the soil. And off we go!
Anyone else fall victim to plant math? I'd love to hear about it if you have!
Well, we are in Lakeside now, on a double COMPLETELY BARE lot (and we love to garden). The chickens will happen next spring after a fall and winter's time to build the coop and run, but for now, we plant.
Today we visited a wonderful nursery in Coos Bay, run by an awesome 80-something gentleman who walked us through his gardens. It went something like this:
"Oh my gosh, look at that blooming cardinalis! And those manzanitas! Get the silvery one and the red bark one to start. And...is that an aloe? Look at the color of the flowers! What's that, Mister Gardener? This plant has gorgeous foliage in the spring and hosts HOW MANY species of native butterfly larvae in the spring? We must have one of those! Oh good grief, that penstemon is to die for! And those hardy fuscias! And...and...smell the foliage on this agastache - and it's covered in skipper butterflies! Yes, we want five pounds of white clover seed to sow in our mongrel grass so the bees can have clover blooms and the soil can be enriched with nitrogen! Oh, yes, please add at least one pot of calendula - the hummingbirds love the pretty blue blooms!"
We are lucky to have found a gentleman who is happy to be paid to dig many, many holes around the perimeter of the yard so we can start our hedgerows - the ground here is mostly sand, so we have to amend, but the digging is the hard part, at our age/s. And next spring, rabbits and chickens will add to enriching the soil. And off we go!
Anyone else fall victim to plant math? I'd love to hear about it if you have!
