new beginnings and jack-pots and deleted posts

Be afraid of Carson’s death glare. Be very afraid. 

actual blah winter brown as seen in the reflection of the hot tub lid

i did not forget my garden toys when we moved. 

these toys go with us wherever the tent trailer goes

JACK-POTS and my six foot tall theatre cage.  a birthday gift from my son, from the oregon shakespeare festival production of 'Twelfth Night'

the cage at our old house, covered last summer  with  hops and morning glories

first time i ever grew morning glories, variety 'grandpa ott', on my cage.  we specified that the cage was not staying when we put the house on the market. 

august 11, 2012:  the NBC national Olympics broadcast did a feature on Shakespeare, with four images from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. That cage, that cage out in our yard, was seen by all the world!  Theatre nerd win!

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more blah

before picture- i have 18 of these mostly buried plastic planters, some with scrappy sedums (and mostly with nothing in them) in the front yard. Jack tended these and this house since 1967. we are honored to be the second owners of this place. i call them "jack-pots".

sedums in this jack-pot, likely uprooted by the deer.  planted alongside is phlox.  lots and lots of phlox.  it was their favorite perennial.  pretty blooms in spring for a short time and mostly ugly the rest of the year.  it is in for a severe pruning.

JACK-POT AND/OR ROCK?  BOTH!   it is a boulder that holds a one gallon can and has no drainage. yay! worthless for plants. i think i will fill it up with troll dolls. that sword fern is the only plant of value in the entire bed, and it appears to need more shade and/or water.

ok, this jack-pot is wooden and sorta cute. this one will stay in respect to Jack.  we may not have the same gardening style, but he took such care of the lawn and trees for 45 years.   however, eventually all his lawn with be replaced with other plants.

sungold tomatoes gathered green before the frost on the way to the compost pile.  edible in october and november.  lovely and tasteless in january.   

the nursery: 80 linear feet of plants, 125 pots under our new forest trunks of white oak, doug fir and incense cedar, with the coastal redwoods beyond. 

twisted corkscrew willow goodness i grew from the first two prunings of what became my beloved willow tree arch. two well rooted trees ready to form my new willow arch. how do you like that metal barn? he barn is so old and tacky that it is a heartbeat away from retro-cool. that scrap of torn out vinyl is so uncool that the dump will not take it. if it is that toxic, why do people install it in their homes? 

another pieris, at bottom of photo, for one dollar!   tall reddish vine is a trumpet flower vine that would have loved the hot sun of the new south facing fence at the old house.  hope i can find a place for it here.   

this is my perennial nursery and in the background is the dead plant ugliness i hauled away from moms apt landing. she is such a gardener at heart, but she does not make it pretty enough for the apt managers approval.

this is how you treat severely rootbound nursery stock,  go at those dense roots with everything sharp and dangerous you have got, until the roots are a lovely loose arrangement. 

cast off curbside suitcase looks excellent with my lovely blue pots. i may wire it partially open and grow plants out of it.

'Chenault' Coralberry and my prized bay laurel

pieris 'flaming silver', one dollar. 

crapped up front porch area -but these containers and plantings are quite acceptable and looking excellent in winter.

a pair of birds nest spruces, two bucks.

while out surveying my plant nursery this gentlemen, my son, arrived home from his first day of his second term at university where he is studying theatre.   i want to thank him for helping me to put this post back together, after it got deleted twice.