GardenBook

  Spotty posting from me in the last couple of months due to a big mess in my Lightroom Catalog that I have been spending many hours trying to straighten out. As one of our IT dudes at the awfice says, this issue was unfortunately a PICNIC i.e. Problem In Chair Not In Computer. Mistakes were made both when I upgraded to a newer version of  Lightroom, and again when I moved photos to my new external hard drive. Most of 2019 is intact but 2015 is a mess-I may have lost most of my photos from that year. I hope to have everything cleaned up by the end of January. In the meantime here is another report from HPSO Study Weekend last summer in Portland.   I first visited this Portland garden in 2014 upon the occasion of Garden Bloggers Fling. The weather had been relentlessly hot , but we had a lovely heat respite on day three and in fact had a refreshing rain squall that conveniently dissipated as we arrived. Study Weekend was a fantastic event , but the garden touring took pl...

 We have made it all the way to mid-November here in Northern California without any event that could be considered the first rain of the season. We got a brief shower that was barely measurable in September and nary a drop since. The NOAA forecast discussion points to the last week of November for the possibility of some moisture coming our way. On the bright side, the daytime weather has been extremely pleasant and just about perfect for outdoor manual labor. We have had 2 or 3 mornings that could be considered mildly frosty-my lone Dahlia was knocked back but I still have 2 of my 4 basil plants.    This is the floribunda rose 'Brass Band' which would probably be in a full-on springlike flush if it weren't for the reduced sunlight it receives in fall.  Madame Isaac Pereire has no rust and no blackspot and several flowers.  Lobelia Laxiflora is blooming more heavily than it did at any time this summer. Not enough cold to lay it low ...

In June I attended HPSO Study Weekend in Portland. I have yet to blog about all the great gardens I saw in association with that event , but no doubt that will occupy some of my time during those long dark winter nights that are looming ahead.  I always prefer to drive when  heading up to Portland  and because of the distance I do the trip with a stopover on the way. On my way home I did a partial Interstate 5 and coastal route combo and decided to take a detour off  I5 to drive by Terra Novas' dramatically colorful display gardens. My ultimate destination that day was Brookings, a seaside town only a couple of miles from the Oregon-California border, and since I had booked myself an ocean front room I wanted to arrive in time to enjoy the view for a few hours. What I should have done was to leave Portland an hour earlier , and call ahead to Terra Nova to ask if I could stroll the entire garden -as it was I stayed to the perimeter and the parking lot . Not the best ...

  Time didn't permit capturing images of everything blooming in my garden this month-though it's definitely not the bounty of July and August. The annual rite of plant fatigue makes its appearance this month with the predictable flopping, the touch of mildew and the scourge of spider mites. On a positive note, the grasses look great, the roses are powering up for a fall bloom and the fuchsias are happy with the cooler nights and mornings.  I've made an effort in the last year to add more late bloomers to my garden . The Aster below has been here10 years-plus  and has been moved at least twice that I can recall. I don't know where I got it and the tag is long gone .  I planted 3 of the aptly named Aster  'Purple Dome'  which are an unobtrusive bright green mound throughout the season and as fall nears they transform to this mass of purple.  This is Aster laterfolius 'Lady in Black' which I will need to move this fall. I planted it too close ...

  If I lived in Portland and was in the market for garden design services  the living portfolio that is the private garden of designer Darcy Daniels would be a strong argument in favor of her firm Bloomtown Gardens . Ironically it wasn't the blooms that were the big draw for me in this garden. It was Darcys' skill at combining foliage shapes, textures and color in both shade and sun.I found it particularly inspiring and wished I had had more time to take it all in. I still have my photos to refer back to, and those of others as well including several on the Bloomtown website . Since I am embarking on yet another renovation  of my front garden in the next few months I've been paying close attention to details of gardens I've liked this year, especially those that feature plants that I can grow here in mine.  Streetside approach. I wish I'd taken more photos of the robustly planted hellstrip.  A sidewalk strollers view. The hellstrips in this Portland n...