Spring finally came! I wish they were pacific bleeding heart, but I'm still glad they are here.

>Some random variety of bleeding heart that was here when we moved in and is so happy that it is a force to be reckoned with. (The hummingbirds buzz it regularly)
>Flashback calendula (loved by the bee flies!)
>Sedum oreganum
>Newly emerged crocosmia lucifer (beloved of the hummingbirds)
>soon to bloom dwarf purple alyssum (the powerhouse living groundcover of our garden and magnet of the bees)

This is in our western exposure, rain shadow bed under the eaves and quite dry. We are slowly infilling with mainly native sedum and a few other respectful sedum friends.

Dreaming of a prickly pear.

This is part of a large bed that is mainly asparagus and chilean guava berry with interplantings.

#gardening #bloomscrolling #pnwGardening #zone8 #zone9
#gardeningWithChronicIllness

I was a little nervous that we might be headed back into a heat dome this year with the early part of this month, but now I think we may be having a traditional PNW spring/June-uary this year.

We have such a hit or miss microclimate where we are. A lot of the time I just rule out a lot of early spring veg because summer flips on like a light switch in late April/May and everything bolts immediately so things like baby greens and tender herbs can feel like an act of futility. I usually wait until mid August and even then things sometimes get cooked.

We walk such a strange line here with being nearly completely underwater in the winter rain, to a desert drought in the summer. The seasonal verges are violent, but it looks like a fair bit of rain and cool weather continuing on here, so I will bravely plant more greens and hope for salad and fill buckets with the rain.

This also bodes well for all our micro-hugelculture beds which can slow and dry if it gets too dry early in their lives. May the mycelium be with you.

#gardening #pnwGardening

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with salmonberries. They are my favourite.

The best I've ever eaten were on the Sunshine Coast trail and nearly the size of golf balls. I could not believe my eyes. I'm always a little nervous of bears in berry season but we still ate our fill before quickly moving on.

My only guess is that the consistent moisture and natural fish fertilizer from the salmon run from the river they were close to were the perfect microclimate for them. That and maybe natural biochar from the burned slag piles they were growing beside. They were also growing in full sun which is the opposite of what everything you read will tell you they like. Also, possibly a little grizzly manure based on what we came across on the trails. 🫣

We finally made a little run to pick up some native plants at a local nursery and we have a beautiful salmonberry bush ready for the ground. Hoping that the biochar in the compost give it a little kick to get it happy here along with a little fish emulsion. Sadly, it's a little harder to find a good source of grizzly bear crap. Lol.

The salal bushes here definitely love a little fish emulsion and kelp meal, but kelp meal is hit or miss to find lately and it's herring spawn season so we won't be collecting any. Maybe later in the season.

So grateful for @ana digging holes and moving soil, as well as her amazing environmental remediation skills. We are slowly turning a neglected backyard into a beautiful little ecosystem. We will likely be pulling bluebells for years to come, but the native plants are making a serious comeback here and it's lovely to see.

#gardening #pnwGardening #pnw #salmonberries #salmonberry

Second year fawn lilies (Erythronium oregonum) are up 🥰

#NativePlants #gardening #PNWGardening #NativePlantsPNW

I haven't been able to find anything like this online, but given the fact that the internet, as we once knew it, doesn't really seem to exist anymore - it probably does. Still I thought I would share my strawberry tower design.

I made this from a heat treated pallet that I had attempted to turn into an oyster mushroom farm, but it was the year we were trapped in the heat dome and stuck inside with forest fire smoke and my MECFS was at peak awful. It floundered in the heat, but my friends hauled it to my place when we moved and it was used as a compost bin last year.

Our climate here has changed a lot since I first started gardening. We are now nearly underwater for the winter and a desert without rain for the summer it seems.

Because of that I've been trying to incorporate a moisture battery inside any of our new beds. The cost of soil and compost here have absolutely skyrocketed beyond anything I've ever seen, so we are attempting to compost in place as much as possible. It's a slow process, but it's working and mulching everything with our fallen leaves keeps it from looking too messy.

I started with the existing compost in the bin and secured it a bit with some bark pieces from our firewood, then lined the lower box with cardboard and added some topsoil, kelp, canola meal and rock phosphate.

I have also been incorporating any charcoal from the fireplace into the bin and our other compost to create some biochar for the soil as well as wood ash because we have highly acidic soil around the Salish Sea. The central tower will be lined with burlap when I get some from my friend who roasts coffee.

I am placing a central column of firewood and wood waste surrounded by more topsoil and organic compost materials. It will break down over time, but we will continue to add materials from the top .

I have currently punched holes into the cardboard and planted some Albion strawberries that were growing in a pot with my fig tree. As they grow I will build the tower with the offshoots cutting holes in the galvanized mesh for them. The mesh should be buried and integrated in the base enough to keep the tower in place without too much reinforcement, but possibly a u-bar if I notice leaning. The mesh is secured with UV resistant zap straps for now because it was what I had, but a rust proof wire would be ideal.

The corners of the lower part of the tower will house pollinator friendly flowers and the top will eventually house either chives or a tumbling cherry tomato. I will post updates as it grows.

#gardening #smallSpaceGardening #verticalHugelcuture #PNWGardening

I love these sunflowers. I had some seeds left over from growing microgreens (they're delicious BTW) so threw them into an empty garden patch I had.

I have grown 'mammoth' sunflowers in other years but the head just gets big and droops over looking depressed. I will be growing more of these again next year.

We will see how many seeds I get to harvest before the squirrels get to them.

#GrowYourOwn #GrowingFood #PNWGardening

I stg my mini cukes were like 2 inches long yesterday.

#gardening #PNWgardening #HobbitEra #MySlowLife

The nectar is flowing - party time at your local squash blossom!

#pnwgardening #growyourown #ants #bloomscrolling

Excited to see this finally bloom! New addition to the garden. We forgot to write down what it was when we bought it so if anyone wants to identify it that would be lovely!

#pnwgardening #bloomscrolling