Saturday, July 28, 2012

Summer Gardening and Sewing

This summer took a heck of a long time to get here.  While the rest of my friends were scorched through June and July, here in the Portland area it has been almost uniformly cool and rainy.  But since the 4th of July we have had some sun mixed in with the clouds at least!

And that means gardening around here.
My husband does almost all of it...I just take care of a few flowers here and there.
Have a look!

This front border is kind of wacky, as the plants are the wrong heights in the wrong places...but the colors are nice!

The dogwood in front has gotten so big since we moved here 20 years ago that I have a lot of shady places to fill...

Little blasts of hot color are nice in the shade.

But the real action this year is out in Robert's garden...

Here are the wildflowers, potatoes, and squash.  The potatoes are insanely good eating this year.

Here is part of his Tomato Plantation...the indeterminate varieties make long vines that he carefully suspends and supports.  This system took years to evolve but this year he has got it down.

The Sungold cherry tomatoes are almost ready....

This bed of brassicas--cauliflower and broccoli--is about done, the cauliflower all harvested and the broccoli flowering...it got away from us before we could harvest it all.  I love its yellow flowers, though.

This is the Fig Plantation.  Robert took cuttings off of our neighbor's fig tree this spring, and has nurtured those little sticks into the baby trees you see here.  It's been a whole lot of work...but he loves fresh figs.

He EVEN is talking about rebuilding our funky greenhouse--which I have been encouraging him to do for years--so that those figs will have a full time place to live in the winter....

I have mostly been sewing instead of gardening...and very happy at it too.

The only problem is, I can't blog about any of it.
This makes me sad...  ;-(  .....but it is for a nice reason.  So you won't be seeing too much of my current work here for awhile.
I of course will keep my teaching and workshop pages current just under my header up at the top of the blog.

Thanks for stopping by....and Happy Summer!








12 comments :

Anna said...

I bet I can guess your good news, regarding your current work :) Happy for you!

Conni said...

Loved the little stroll through your beautiful gardens!
(I think I can guess the news,too...)

Rebecca Grace said...

Your flower gardens remind me of your crazy quilting, with all the beautiful embellishments. Secret sewing work that cannot be blogged about sounds fabulous -- congratulations, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you're up to when you're finished~

Sherrie Spangler said...

Lovely gardens! What do you do with all of your cauliflower? Our garden is in its second year here in WA and we are drowning in cauliflower. Does it freeze well? We can't eat it or give it away fast enough!

Susan Elliott said...

All hail to Robert the Great, King of the Gardens!!!

I'd like to apprentice next to him for just a week or so..I hope he does re-build the greenhouse but Man, he has got to be SOOO busy.

And as for beautiful you, we'll take you however we can get you.

But who, I ask, is going to can all those tomatoes this year while you're working????? I vote for Prince Harry...

The world wants to see more pictures of him ;)

Anonymous said...

I've missed you. Happy to know all is well.

Judy said...

Wow. That's a wonderful garden! Your husband must really love working with plants. I'm trying to get more of a green thumb, but so far I'm about 50/50 on the plant survival, haha. I'm looking forward to seeing what you are working on when you can share it.
Enjoy your day,
Judy

Deb Hardman said...

Your yard looks as lush as your quilts! Beautiful!

Judy S. said...

Nice garden! I see lots of salsa in your future.... You're so right about the slow summer in these parts, and today's headlines say "sorry, summer's almost outta here," sigh.

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