Happy Holidays!

Floating Leaf

Be forewarned that I'm going to expose you to my first video taken with my first iPhone (and/or smart phone) and my first attempt at using YouTube. 

So... one morning last week, I walk out to my truck and notice a floating leaf in the air approximately 5 feet from the ground. Giggling, I investigate. Just what is holding this leaf in the air, I ask?

....I know, I know, we are KNOW what is holding this leaf but let us investigate further nonetheless.

I begin by sweeping my hand through the air to locate from where the leaf is hanging. The leaf moves with each sweep of my hand. At this point, I am gleefully laughing out loud (and look completely crazy standing in the middle of the street waving my arm through the air laughing only to myself).

In child-like amusement,  a thought occurs to me, I have a iPhone... which is also a camera! I take a few photos and THEN realize I also have video capabilities. So I take my first video holding my iPhone with my left hand continuing to move the leaf through the air with my right. 

Spider webs are amazing!

Happy Hanukkah

Happy Festival of Lights!
Happy Winter Solstice!
Happy Birthday, Mom!

The benefits of being a lazy gardener...

Last weekend I FINALLY pulled the pepper plants from the ground and tossed them into the compost bin. Along with the peppers we grew lovely tomatillos which actually produced fruit! Then...I let them wither away once the frosty nights hit. Its pretty sad and embarrassing to have let such beauties melt away without putting them to proper use. And yet on a more positive note, and to my surprise, some of the fruits had completely melted, leaving behind their gorgeous veined lanterns.

Aren't these gorgeous!

I'll let the rest of the fruits melt away in the
....sun???? (cross your fingers!)

Layering Focal Points

I like to create layered plantings that hide and reveal shortened and lengthened viewpoints in the garden. These photos are of a planting bed which is a focal point from the kitchen and dining rooms of my house. The ground plane is planted with a variety of evergreen grasses. The central deciduous plant is a witch hazel. Behind the witch hazel is a curving Corokia hedge and behind that hedge are 4 clumps of Canna 'Intrigue' which grew to create a curved 'wall' behind the witch hazel and Corokia hedge. The cannas shortened my view and stopped my eye from traveling beyond them and moved my view up the purple arrow-like foliage. If you study the photo below, you'll notice the Cannas as they began to fall from wind and colder temps.

Cannas 'up'...well, partially 'up'...falling, actually!

With the removal of the Cannas my viewpoint is opened up to reveal the black pot behind the witch hazel.

Cannas gone for the winter

As the winter season progresses, the witch hazel will bloom a glowing, warm, yellow-orange adding color 'pop' to this winter scene. 

Side view of Corokia hedge and Cannas cut back.

Winter Containers...so festive!

I just planted these elegant concrete bowls with 'winter goodness' for a client.

Sequoidendron giganteum 'Barabit's Requiem', Carex 'Ice Dance', Polystichum setiferum and Gaultheria procumbens fill the pots.

We'll have to find a home for the Sequoidendron when it becomes too large or remove it in the spring when I change out the pots!

In the same garden the Sarcococca is in full berry!

Its a unexpected sunny, cold, day in Portland, OR and I love it!

A frosty winter morning in the garden

 This morning I awakened to crystal white crust on neighboring roofs and the garden. It was gorgeous!

Leptinella 'Platt's Black'

Corokia cotoneaster curving hedge with Hakonechloa 'Aureole' in its buff-colored winter glory

The Edgeworthia chrysantha still holding onto its leaves, Hakonechloa 'All Gold', Calamagrostis brachytricha and Ophiopogon cultivars.

The Musa basjoo leaves looking more like green, floating combs than banana leaves.

I've removed the annuals from the pots (mostly), the abutilon is still blooming along side the Echium.

Abutilon, Loropetalum, Echium, Ophiopogon and Eriobotrya.

The mostly evergreen sweeps of plantings are beginning to take effect.

I've made one 'clean up pass' through the garden and will finish when the trees have finished their final winter slough.

Hakonechloa 'All Gold'

Its about time to 'top' the bananas. 

Yesterday morning while drinking my coffee on the covered back porch, I witnessed a humingbird feeding on the Mahonia, then the Abutilon, then zoomed to the water feature for a drink- now THAT is the way to start the day!

Mahonia blooms