How's your summer?

With gorgeous weather, and plenty of plant sales, it has been hard to keep caught up on line. Hard to just get laundry done!! lol And because of that, I have lost touch with people. So if you are in the same boat(must be on the other side of the boat!), then this thread is for you, or everyone!
How has summer been? Mine has been work, more work, and lots of watering and mowing. I'm getting ready to start anouther bed.Found some cool antiques to go in the yard, now just figuring out what to do with them. But thats not what this is for. This is just a " Whats up" kind of thing. My kids are doing great, my Dad turned 80 on Friday, born during the depression he was! And I am fit as a fiddle once again, and thats good, since all I have really done is work and work!
How about everyone else? Been so busy it's hard to sit down, for fear of falling asleep? Give us all a holler, and maybe a pic of a project.It's not like Feb, and everyones stuck inside.

Cool idea for a thread, Gordon! As most PNW gardeners know, my summer has pretty much been taken up with the care of DH. But tomorrow I will try to take some pictures of a flower bed that a friend, her DH, and a couple college kids cleaned out for me. It's a nice story of friendship and caring with the result of a potentially lovely garden.

I got a new job, day caring a 10 year old and and 8 year old. I'm working on plotting and putting beds in. This summer has been too cold or too hot. I want some where in between with some occasional rain.

Zhinu, I did daycare in my home for years (a long time ago) and it was by far and wide the hardest job I ever did - by far!

Yes, but I get to play on here, read books, garden, and, most importantly, stay home with my step-daughter and be part of her life. I also watch a 20 mo. old a couple days a week, but that's the limit. We need the money though and all things considered I prefer it to a "real" job.

You're right about that - and if there'd been computers and DG back then, I might have done it even longer!!!

Gordon, I haven't planted the seeds you gave me yet - would I be best off to wait until Fall or maybe Winter sow them? I'm afraid of trying much right now that would require a lot of attention from me.

Hi Gordon! Great topic.
Summer has been fleeting - the tomatoes/cukes/eggplant have struggled, and anything susceptible to black spot got it this year. I have enjoyed the warmth lately, and seeing some plants that were borderline from the stressful winter weather, regain their growing momentum.
Doing lots of landscaping, and hoping for a decent winter so the new plants won't keel over. I am developing my PNW garden. I hope to get it completely cleared, rocked & compost added - ready to plant by Spring. Also, about 200' of rock retaining walls to get done before October. Makes me tired just thinking about it.

How did your bathtub & surrounding area turn out? I hope you have taken pictures to show us sometime.
No - it's not like February: I am stuck OUTSIDE! I don't want to come in when it gets dark; just too much to do & too many things to think about doing. And workwork gets in the way.

Hey Gordon, like this tread great idea.
Went and visited Carla, came home with a car load of plants, so enjoyed the visit want to go back and see her.

Was on Vac. the first week of the month, did mostly weeding, did get some things planted. And celebrated are 20th Ann.

Had a Computer malfunction, got a virus, had to download all my pics. real nightmare, and I hope all is fixed now. LOL

And Soooo missed you, made a funny on blooming 4.
Tills
Hugs
( not trusting my system will send a pic next, don't want to lose what I wrote)

One of the beds, with my rose ' Candy Stripe'

Forget that one, that was just plain bad.
I don't have much to pick from, have them all on disks.

My Pinks

This message was edited Jul 13, 2008 11:16 PM

With help from a scythe and and a weewhacker and my mower, I've just about recovered from not being able to mow my law first thing in the spring. Whew - way too much lawn and will need beds someday, but would like to get the surrounding beds cleaned out first.

I've been enjoying the weather - have found an alternative to your standard window screen that the cats can't push out (a baby gate turned on its side), so I'm able to get a breeze going through the house and it stays cool (ISH).

Stacked a bunch of wood yesterday that my kind neighbor split. It's from the 50' tall fir that fell in between our properties 1 1/2 ago. We've cleaned it all up and had it cut into rounds. Now we're left with rounds we can't move. They'll make nice focal points once we figure out where to put them.

My pop will turn 90 this August. We're looking forward to celebrating with him. Can't believe how fortunate we all are to have him around still.

Lots of deer, coyotes, raccoons, bunnies, moles and voles on and around my property this year. I saw my first bat earlier in the summer. Hoping for more. Lots of woodpeckers in the neighborhood and more crows than we've ever seen.

Thought I was safe from passersby at the end of the road, but someone went through my truck on Friday night and stole a full 5 gallon gas can out of the back. So we're back to locking up.

And in between, I've been increasing my bed space and starting the composting in new beds. If I could just find some time for planting . . . .

Kathy, Kathy - where on earth did you locate a "weewhacker"?
inquiring minds want to know...
=:0)

I know i'm keeping my wee away from you ! Glad everyone is enjoying the thead. Was over at the in laws and look how big there gunnera is this year! And here I thought mine was big!

Inquiring minds, as me. Would like to see pics of your great yard, Kathy.
Please share some.
Would love to see them.
^_^
Tills

LOL. Ooops.

Mary, I'm so bad about posting pictures. But I do need to - at least so you can see how much grass I have (ha!!) and how far I need to go to finish any of my projects . . . I'm always out there and think, gee, I need to take a picture of that. It's so pretty. I'll get the camera when I go in. Then I stay out too long, go in, take a shower and forget. I also have a plant that I need you guys to help me id.

Good knews is that I finally cut down the remainder of the lawn. Now I need to finish raking up the hay . . .

Good to hear what people are busy with, and glad to know I'm not alone in battling mile high stands of grass. Then I look over at the advancing blackberry thicket on the berm by the road and the grass begins to look positively tame.

I'm now in the midst of harvesting and cleaning 300 garlic bulbs. I don't know what possessed me last Fall. I was planning to cut back production and now I remember why.

Also trying to keep up with watering the shrub and perennial beds that I planted last year, and trying to figure out how to move things around effectively so the expanding plants don't swallow each other. The lilies I planted in the strawberry bed are blooming too! Yeah. Then there is picking snow peas, raspberries, currants, and the blueberries are beginning. And still more of my hundreds of parsnips (of ill repute with certain DG members here). The broccoli has outgrown pecking damage from the pheasant and a few will be ready this week. Yum.

Aside from gardening, I have been helping my teenage son get ready for a trip to Ghana that he is going on with a group of drummers to study with a musician there. This involves visa photos, immunization shots, gigs with his buddies to raise money for the tuition (they have reached their goal), getting him to and from jobs to pay for his plane ticket. He has the second half of a roof and gutters to clean and then he'll have it together.

What I really should be doing is cleaning up the house some, because a little boy I have been tutoring in reading is coming tomorrow. At the very least, I need to scoop a pile of garlic off the couch so we will have somewhere to sit.

I am going to remember this summer as very mixed.

On the one hand, it has been a beautiful, gentle year. The weather has been stunning, switching nicely between rain and the most glorious sun: yesterday was simply beautiful with that air quality that comes in summer when the temperature is right and the humidity low. The clarity was startling, and everything seems so sharply in focus. Just beautiful. And everything is growing with such a lusciousness this year that I am just bowled over by its beauty, the roses have scented the garden for weeks now - I think that is partly the weather, and partly that a lot of the planting are starting to come into more maturity - where we have had new planting over the past few years, they are now starting to settle in and move together, and it is working nicely. Very exciting.

All of that is lovely, and so satisfying.

The sad part is that my mother died early last week. It has been expected, and she was of a good age at 84.

Last Christmas she was rediagnosed with the return of cancer, and the past 6 months we have been living with that. Up until Easter she was doing quite well, but from then the decline has been quite rapid. Fortunately for all of us, although her body was failing, her mental state stayed clear until the final few weeks. (I'm sorry I'm not good at writing this - I am much better with being with others, than letting others be with me - thus the choice of profession). I am glad that we were able to talk about her dying, but it still leaves a peculiar hole - it is that sense of not being able to find a way around something.

I know that time will reduce the size of the whole - and truthfully, so does gardening. I took the day off from work yesterday and weeded, prepared the soil, and planted out some plants that I am growing on for next year. I thought about my mother, and how little she knew or was interested in gardening (the number of time she said "and to think I couldn't even get you to pull a weed when you were little!" - get over it mom, kids don't weed!) I will miss her - but I couldn't always have said that. Our relationship was a lot like making a garden and we started with some pretty poor soil, but it did grow. Working in my garden seemed like a good way to think of her, and that is the nice thing about gardening we are always looking forward with promise for the change the next year brings.

I am okay, I just needed sometime to sit with this by myself.

Laurie, I'm so sorry. No matter the age, no matter that you knew it was coming, such a loss is immeasurable. I am glad you have your beautiful (and bountiful) garden to help you in your grieving. Thinking of you with fondness. Holly

I thought I'd let people on this forum know that Ned (of Thorne Bay, Alaska) has come successfully through surgery for cancer last week and is recovering well. He may be getting out of the hospital any day now. : )

Laurie1 - It's hard losing anyone, but especially a mother. I can't imagine losing mine and I hope that day is very far away. I lost my great grand mother at the age of 89, that was in 1995. I still miss her.

Laurie, so sad, Its real hard to lose a love one, Hugs coming at you.
Lissy, loves you, lots of hugs and Kisses.

So sorry to hear of your lose Laurie. My mom is 90 and has been living with me for over a year now. It has been fun getting to know her better as an adult.

Many thanks for your thoughts.

Hurrah - Weds, back to the garden tonight! And weeding, just love it. Weather stills holds in its glorious summer magic. Don't you love the length of the days - to finish the gardening and just sit in the end of the light and watch it disappear. Excellent. I'm always in too much of a hurry to get warm again in Winter to really enjoy that fading into night - Summer, So good - big gardening list for this weekend. Which most of it will still be undone on Monday.

Laurie1, please add my condolences on your loss. My mom is 94 and I know the inevitable is coming. She feels blessed to have lived as well as she has. I moved here 10 years ago to care for my parents (they live next door), lost my dad 4 yrs ago and am enjoying every day I'm allowed with mom. We enjoy making memories together and hope your memories make your loss easier.

tillysrat...love the hugs you sent.

Laurie ~ I've wondered where you've been for the past few weeks. I'm so very sorry to hear about your mom. I cannot truly say "I know how you feel" because I don't. I can say, however, that I am deeply sorry for your loss. It sounds that you had an opportunity to say the things you needed to say before she passed, though, and that is a good thing.

Now for my summer so far. Good. . .it's been good. It finally hit here a week or two ago and things are starting to bloom. I learned a great deal about gardening here these past few months and will do a lot of things differently next year. My salsa bed in the potager is a bust. Everything germinated but nothing grew beyond seedling. The cilantro got about 5-6" high, very scraggly, and is already going to flower. Oh well...*sigh* On the other hand, DH has been working on a new bed adjacent to the daylily bed and that is coming along nicely. The Faerie Garden in the Quarter Acre Wood is developing, albeit slowly and certainly destined for many changes before I'm adequately satisfied with the result. The straw bales have some plants in them which appear to be doing well, along with the bumper crop of mushrooms growing out of them! I don't know if the 'shrooms are edible, but I certainly won't be experimenting with them!

Chile's getting ready for some more stuff, the ABC National Specialty and the Canadian Nationals, both at the beginning of August. Still training for triathlons, and that has become a much more pleasant experience now that the sun is shining! I did the Valley Girl Triathlon in Liberty Lake last weekend and did well. Danskin is the 3rd week of August. Only doing those two this year because of vacation. The Sequim Lavender Festival is next weekend and some of the farms are still waiting for the outbreak of purple (better hurry. . .only a few days left!)

That's it. . .busy, busy, busy, but fun, fun, fun! Hope everyone else is doing well and is happy and healthy!

Outta - may I suggest that you put some clear plastic tents over your peppers to give them that extra heat (if you have any old glass windows it works even better) - a few sticks making the pitch, and plastic stretched tight and pinned down with rocks can make all of the difference. I put old windows over my melons which were sitting lazily, and they have shot off! Don't discard the cilantro - let it go to blossom (excellent as a garish in salads) and wait for seeds - harvest the seeds! They are wonderful ground and put into soup or sauce - much stronger cilantro flavour than the leaf. You can do the same with parsley, rocket, and chives towards the end of the season - the seed is very flavourful - and gives you that lovely fresh hit all winter.

Congratulations on the tri, and good luck on the next. Good luck to Chili too. And thank you for your thoughts and for missing me.

My love to you, Laurie.

Laurie1 - beautiful area you live in.

Ahhhh. There's nothing more healing than getting back outside, Laurie. You've described it so well.

Holly, please give Ned my best and let him know that I'm hoping and praying for his speed recovery. We all want him to get well soon.

Sheri - you STUD. It sounds like you have been crazy busy. How do you train your dog for Canadian Nationals and train yourself for and participate in triathlons in one summer? Impressive.

Zhinu - aren't the pictures of Burwash Weald just stunning? We all fantasize about taking a field trip there to visit her some day.

katie59 - I went down to battle area, that was what I was thinking of.

I think it's similar, though. Those rolling hills and the views of the ocean/channel are great.

Sheri - if you let the Cilantro self-sow, you will have plenty of it next year. Also, it may grow late season '08. Mine always does, and Winter 06/07 it grew non-stop: I had Cilantro in January. Good thing i like it so much...

Zhinu, you've been to Battle, in East Sussex?

I was just out weeding the vegetable bed - getting ready to sow the next row of lettuce, and I realized I forgot to say, Outta, that I successionally sow the things that bolt quickly: cilantro, lettuce, rocket. That way it doesn't matter that it goes to seed, the next row is either ready or just about. And it doesn't take all that much more space - once something bolts, you can take it out and that is where the next row goes in.

This message was edited Jul 17, 2008 6:46 PM

Laurie1 - I have a B.A. UK history (mainly renaissance and before) . I did two trips each a month + to the UK (with small jumps to Ireland and France). We went to Battle Abbey in 2005.

I was gypped!!! I didn't know you could get a BA in UK History. That's fantastic- the trips sound like such fun.

You can do some very interesting things at Evergreen State College, it's not a standard type of college. For example, you don't get grades, but a page long evaluation of what you did during the quarter. The two trips were close to the best experiences of my life, not to mention times or great personal growth. I want to take my DH over there as a late honeymoon, or maybe when we do our vow ceremony. I'd also like to take my DSD but that won't be until she's quite a bit older. At 7 I don't think she's up to the type of trip I'd want to do, or would have the interest to make it worth while.

I did go at 12 with my aunt and uncle and was totally caught up in the experience - I was/am a bit of a romantic and daydreamer, so that made a difference, but I loved the trip, nonetheless.

That's about the right age I think. Old enough to be able to listen to the tour guide and understand what they're talking about, but young enough to still be interested. At 7 I think she'd have trouble with the travel and most of the exhibits would be too dry, but by 16 most kids aren't interested in history, at least till they become adults (in the mental sense not the physical).

LOL. I think I would still have been interested in the hstory, but I’d have been mortified at everything my parents said and did.

There's that too. I'd have to take Cthulu with me if I can go back, and I can just imagine a teenagers reaction when they found out their parents would be carrying a doll around in public.