philosophy 101

I would love to be retired. I think about it daily.. Even though I do love my work, I think I would love it more if I didn't have to worry about the business aspect of it. But it's wierd. When I'm working, I can't imagine wanting to be anywhere else. But when I'm home, I feel the same way about being home. And when I'm on the boat, I can't imagine being anywhere else. Maybe I'm just learning to bloom where I'm planted! One can only hope.

I've been so busy helping my daughter and her boyfriend move and paint their new kitchen that by the time I get home I'm too exhausted to check email and DG. And yesterday we picked up their new puppy and that was very exciting! My daughter has owned this house for 10 years and rented it to Reed (her alma mater) students so now there's a lot of work inside and out, and a garden to rehabilitate. They are a cute couple and I really like the boyfriend's parents - we're having fun watching our kids become a couple.

I was having the same thoughts about my work and how I loved it and I was conflicted about the thought of retiring. I love architecture and all the theory and creativeness. Then one day I was sitting in a meeting and realized I hated the business side, I hated the marketing, I hated the client, and I hated the constant pressure. That's how you know it's time to give it up. It will happen to you guys, too, and you will just 'know' that it's time. And you will remain friends with your co-workers but on a more personal level, and you will become mentors to some. And it will all be good.

Since it has been so hot I have gotten into the habit of spending a few hours each morning watering and puttering around in the garden. Being out there very early (7 is very early for me) seems to put everything in perspective and the rest of the day falls into place. Gardening echoes the Buddhist philosophy of 'everything changes' and is a reminder to float with things and enjoy the process. At 62 I am trying to embrace the changes in my body - aches and pains and oh so tired at the end of the day. What are these changes telling me? Slow down? Do more? What are the changes in our gardens telling us? Slow down? Do more? Plant more? How do we become more in touch with the signals our gardens send? And how can we use those signals in the other parts of our lives?

I'm going to be good and not comment on that, but I think as we get older things change or where you are from. But I do know that I was raised on the desert (mojave) and I so hate the muggy heat that is up here.

I love the watering time in the garden. It's sort of like therapy for me, although I hate to think what the water bill is going to be like.
I, too, have been trying to get the message my garden is sending. Especially hard is listening to the fact that the voles have descended upon me. I started out fighting them off, then realized that they were simply better equipped to deal with this than I am. I'm considering this a journey in learning to 'let go' of needing to protect each and every plant. I've decided the garden is overplanted anyway and that I will protect the plants that I love the most and leave the rest to fend for themselves. It's hard, because now I have to prioritize, which I've never been that good at. I think that the garden says 'slow down' to me, and focus more on what you have rather than on planting more. That's an on-going lesson since I do love to buy plants.
The other thing the garden tells me is to get out and do other things. So I'm working on that one.

I also love watering the garden. It's the perfect time to observe all the plants and to notice what is about to bloom, what is on the slugs' dinner table, what seems unhappy in it's location, and to make a mental list of happy chores to be done.
My garden is sending the message to watch and observe. If you don't take time, things will slip past and you will miss so much. That hour you spent this morning watering is gone, and you will never get it back. Be conscious of the hour and the day. I tend to rush through chores but why? Why not enjoy the process?

Living in the 'now'. It can be a real challenge when there is a lot to do. I've had to begin to redefine my idea of 'useful' activities and my concept of 'accomplishment'. Have you read any of the Eckhart Tolle books on living in the 'now'?

I have not read Eckhart Tolle - right now I have just started The Hobbit and will move on to The Lord of the Rings. Tills got me interested in those! I'll add Tolle to my list. My favorite thing to do is to read in the swing on my front porch, with a cold glass of iced coffee, dog at my feet.

Easiest iced coffee: put 1 pound of coffee grounds (ground for French press is best) in large pitcher, add 11 cups cold water, let sit on counter for 11 hours. 1-11-11. Strain and keep in refrigerator. You will now have a concentrate that has absolutely no bitterness since no heat was used. If you like iced latte fill a glass a little more than half full with the coffee, add sugar and 1/2 and 1/2 or milk to taste, add ice. If you like iced coffee with no dairy just add cold water instead. I use decaf so I can drink lots!

My neighbor the garden designer has gone out of town with her husband to the Oregon Country Fair and left me to water and watch over her garden. This is the first time I have been in their back yard without one of them and yesterday I sat there for a while. I came to the conclusion that some gardens can reveal more about their owners than the spaces inside their homes. Inside their house the spaces are divided into work areas with computer and drawing table that flow into the usual living, dining, and kitchen spaces. It is a happy and relaxed place. The garden reflects the same qualities, but also has mystery and detail. Remember, we have very small yards here! There is a shaded rain garden that is like a grotto, surrounded by one huge tree and several large shrubs, and ferns. The floor of the rain grotto is depressed to catch and hold water and it is covered with stones laid in a haphazard pattern with spaces between them to allow the water to percolate into the soil. There is another area tucked into a niche formed by the house exterior walls that has a fountain overgrown with vines and other plants. There are several large shrubs with purple blooming clematis rambling up and over them. There are flat stones in one of the borders that form an arc. The total effect is one of peace and shelter. Amy spends a lot of time here and I imagine that she finds relief from their busy lives, and inspiration for her work.

I am watching President Obama in Cape Coast, Ghana. The first family is touring a slave holding facility that is truly frightening with a very sad history. What a moment for both Americans and Africans. It brings tears.

Wow! That would be completely profound. It's good to be alive during such a time.

I would love to see a photo of that rain grotto. It sounds just lovely, although I imagine it's quite dry just now.

Tolkien's LOTR series is well worth reading, as well as The Hobbit. I would consider them a necessary part of a good education in literature.

Tolle is completely different as his books are non-fiction. I love listening to his books on CD or MP3, especially if he is reading them. He is German and his accent keeps me entertained almost as much as his actual words.

I so enjoyed The Hobbitt and LOTR series. My sons all loved them and read them multiple times.

The neighbor's garden sounds like a wonderful retreat!

Ahhh so I could recline in the porch swing and listen to Tolle without even having to hold a book. What a fabulous thing!

Regrettably, I don't want to take photos of Amy's garden since that is her business. Her website is www.plan-it-earthdesign.com. She is a lovely and gentle person, as is her husband and they are great neighbors. The rain grotto - Amy calls it a rain garden but it reminds me of a grotto - is dry at the moment, and full of droppings from a huge old Ailanthus tree. The invasive Ailanthus tree is in Amy's yard and has been there for eons. It is enormous and Amy wants it gone! They are planning a big removal project to get rid of that demon. We spend a lot of time searching for little saplings in our yards and digging them up. It will be interesting to watch her garden go through the change from being deeply shaded to having more sun. Amy is a big proponent of getting rid of invasive species and my neighbor on the other side, who knows nothing about plants and is not interested in getting reliable information, is a big proponent of planting them! I follow Amy's advice - there are so many wonderful other plants so why cultivate those that are harmful to the PNW?

So this leads to another discussion. How many of you seek out native plants for your gardens? And if you have invasive species are you planning to get rid of them? So many invasive things are very lovely and fast-growing. Do you have concerns about them taking over your own garden, and do you worry about their seeds being spread by birds and other creatures and invading wild areas resulting in crowding out of native species? What natives do you have in your garden and do you love them?

I'll make time to visit her website in the coming week while I'm off from work. The mother in law is coming to visit, always a pleasant time. We do get along, and she is a great gardener, so we have that in common.

I do not necessarily seek out native plants, but I do have a number of natives growing in the garden and the landscape. I find some things that are native are a bit too aggressive in a garden setting, such as Indian Plum. I have a very nice Indian plum that puts out attractive tiny fruit every year. I leave it because it's a native, the birds like it, and the fruit is pretty. But I cut it back severely each year and I am constantly pulling out seedlings. I finally took out my native variegated elderberry, even though it was a native and quite attractive. It grew to monstrous proportions each year, made a huge mess, and the branches broke off all the time. I planted a nice Puget Pink maple in its place. I do try to avoid planting things that are taking over parts of Washington state to the detriment of native plants. If I have anything I know is actually invasive, like the yellow flag iris, I do not let it go to seed at all.

I have a native flowering currant that I love, and I also love the red huckleberries and regular purple huckleberries I have. I also have several hazelnut trees and love their form. I have Ocean spray, which I can take or leave, frankly. I also have snowberry and it's the bane of my existance for the most part. It spreads faster than any invasive species I can think of. I pull it out all the time. I have salmon berry also, and I leave it for the most part, although I know that there are some people on this forum who just hate it because they have so much of it. I also leave the big bracken ferns alone unless they pop up in the middle of a perennial.

Oh my! I recently planted 2 snowberries. How does it spread? By shoots? Seed? Right now they are 2 feet tall - when do I worry? I like to think I'm doing something good by choosing natives but I wonder if that matters when it's in a city garden instead of in the wild. I understand that to not choose an invasive is preferable but how important is planting natives in our gardens?

I purchased a huge pot that will be delivered tomorrow and I was thinking about putting a flowering current in it. It's about 3 feet tall x 3 feet diameter. I also love smoke trees but that might want to get too tall and the pot might not be its happy place.

Like it or not I will always have more native plants in my yard than cultivated species, (even though I have a 1/3 of an acre in bamboo. I also have a bog garden I like to call my swamp that has both native and cultivated wetland species. My lawn used to be blackberries and we just started mowing it and have never planted grass. I try to keep aware of what is invasive and keep a wary eye on them. I use no pesticides and herbicides, thinking that I am so fortunate to have a small piece of the planet to mess with and one of the prices to pay is sharing my plums with the raccoons, the earthworms with the moles and little bitty slugs in my lettuce. Darn!!

Snowberry spreads by runners and by seeds. Don't worry, just pull out the runners when you see them. You'll probably have to do it more than once a year.
Azorina, you probably already know that those blackberries are an invasive species. Is that why you are mowing them? I used to feel nothing but love toward the moles in my yard and garden, welcoming them with open arms as they aerated my soil for me. Now I fear my welcome mat has become something of a problem as their tunnels invite voles into my garden and they are very, very destructive in large numbers. The west coast appears to be under some sort of population explosion of these creatures this year. They eat the roots off of anything and everything. I don't feel quite so kindly toward them lately.

Pixydish- Mowing the blackberries is how we created our lawn, & believe it or not it worked out quite well. (Basically we have mowed weeds that we call lawn)
I feel the same way about moles, DH has been filling the holes with used cat litter. It worries me a little because cat poo seems so noxious. I'll keep you updated about how that is working.

I was watering yesterday when I noticed a bit of drama taking place before my eyes. I bent over to admire a snowberry blossom and saw a bee absolutely still. Of course it was still because it was a prisoner, and the culprit appeared to be a white spider with red marks. It was holding the bee with it's two front legs and had what I am guessing is a sort of mouth on the bee's head. The bee also had a few tiny fly-like creatures on it's back. I took my computer outside and looked up white spiders. I had never seen a white spider! I learned it is a white crab spider, and is white in order to be almost invisible while sitting on a blossom waiting for it's prey. They do not spin webs but just snatch an unsuspecting visitor. They then suck the poor bee's insides and leave the carcass for another hunter. Sure enough, along came another spider, this one a much smaller more common garden variety. The second spider actually sat on top of the white spider patiently waiting for it's turn. The tiny flies took off as soon as the second spider arrived. I do like bees more than spiders but I had to admire this efficient system!

Then I began to wonder about all the drama going on in our gardens that we never see. Kind of like the first time I realized that my child (I only had one at that point) had a reality that was parallel to mine; a reality I was not privileged to know. Relationships with little nursery school friends and his pals at the park. I had been regarding this garden as "mine" but is it really? I know in the larger sense that my space belongs to the earth, but in the immediate realm it belongs more to the tiny creatures that live in their own parallel universe. But at some point creatures like moles and voles and snails and slugs cross the line, and their worlds cross into ours. They become a detriment instead of a symbiotic part of our gardens.

How awesome to see!!! You are right, there is a huge community in our gardens that we really know nothing about. Very interesting!!! HMMM.....
I kinda felt rather than saw something as it moved off to my left. I'm a thinkin it was a snake, but never got a look at it. I'm hoping it lives there. I'd love to have a toad, too. Maybe I do and don't even know it.

Judi..I think this pic I took earlier this month of your "friend" the crab spider. They are interersting spiders. I never saw one of these in CA so I was quite taken back when I first saw one. That and the hobo spider in my house. It was humongus!!

I love to watch those red and white spiders. Usually they are on white flowers and can get as big as the end of your thumb.

Yes BeaHive that looks just like the one in my yard except mine was ghostly white - so white it was almost translucent. I wonder if they can change their color to match the flower they are hiding on. Quite fascinating!

I am having a problem with yellow jackets - lots of them. They think the garden belongs to them. They think all the flowers belong to them, all the plants belong to them, and the big water dish (dog & cats) that I keep filled on the deck in the summer belongs to them. Are they right? Do have an obligation to provide for them, too?

Willow, nice to see you here. I hope your family is doing ok. :)

Judi, have you checked to see it you have a nest(hive) somewhere. I have found three so far this year under the eves of my roof. They are very annoying and can be dangerous if they get mad about something. I got stung by one on my lower back last summer by one who called the inside of my waders home. Hurt like heck! Had no idea he was in them until I put them on and was in the pond! Sprays and traps are availabe for these little pesky critters.

Thanks Bea - I may have to get a few traps. Portland Nursery was having such a bad problem with them that they had to rope off a section of the nursery while they set traps and then had to keep it roped off for four more days until the yellow jackets were gone.

I'm perfectly willing to share my garden with creatures but I draw the line when they won't let me enjoy it!

After I made the above statement about not letting creatures interfere with my enjoyment of my own garden, I asked myself exactly what is the purpose of my garden?

Different gardens have different purposes, and some gardens have many. Food production, child play areas, buffer zones between houses, meditation spaces, catching rainwater. What is the function or purposes of your gardens? Maybe we can discover more wonderful functions for our own gardens by knowing how others use theirs.

I guess I could say the function of my garden is to help prevent insanity, It gives me a purpose and a chance to work in tandem with something much larger than myself. I especially enjoy the high drama of the miniature inhabitants that live here.

Linda - LOL! I like your answer! It made me laugh but it really is a serious thing. I also find peace in my garden. I wonder exactly what about our gardens prevents insanity? Is it doing repetitive tasks (kind of like knitting) that reduces stress? Is it being outdoors in fresh air? Is it that the plants are sending us vibes? After all, who does not feel something while walking in a forest?

The purpose of pleasure gardening is an interesting point Judi, and one with a long history. I've been doing a bit of casual research lately on the history of garden design - and it has served as everything from a battle to capture Queen Elizabeth's favours, to making political statements: during the 18th century the deposing of Charles the 2nd, and the enthronement of Wm. and Mary was accompanied by a shift in garden design. The Tory, seen as the old style supporters of the Catholic/Conservative reign remained with the Baroque style, while the new parliamentarians, who ousted James and killed off Charles, took up the more naturalist Palladian style. So the 17th and 18th C. seems to have seen it as a political statement.

It sounds like an odd way to move a Kings and Queens, but I think we are seeing a slight awakening of this again with the Obama's turning part of the white house lawn into a vegetable garden. What could be a better way to say 'sow it, grow it, take charge of change'.

As I thought about your question, the first thing that came to mind was that it is a pleasure for my mom. After all, i didn't really have any gardens until she moved in almost 11 years ago. Other reasons follow that: sensory enjoyment, food for animals and even a little more now for us ( that is going to be next year's project), therapy. I know there are more.

I think the reason for my garden besides making the house look better, is just that I enjoy mucking around outside as opposed to cleaning the house.

Loved the spider story, Portland. I think those little crab spiders are so delicate and pretty, as spiders go. In terms of the yellow jackets, I do think our 'waspinator' is working! I have seen yellow jackets on the other part of the yard,, but nothing yet in the area where we always sit. So far, I'm pretty impressed with it.
http://www.waspinator.com/

I garden because I like to play in the dirt. I also like the results, as a general rule. And I love the bees. Today I saw the most beautiful bumble bee ever. It was bright yellow, almost completely and looked like a small flying teddy bear. The bees are back to being their friendly selves, I am happy to report.

A flying teddy bear - how cute! Glad to hear the bees are behaving.

Laurie I agree with you about the Obama vegetable garden. What I really like about it is seeing Michelle kneeling in the dirt with the children.

The gardening style in my neighborhood and many others in Portland is best described by that trite phrase "controlled chaos" but maybe a better description is "understood chaos" because it seems to be the favorite look. There are no neatly edged lawns with plants all in a row. If there is a lawn at all it is bordered with a plethora of greenery spilling over. Plants are allowed to grow into their natural forms and gardens are packed with plants that complement each other both in form and color. Even though it may look chaotic, there is thought and intention in the planning. So I am wondering what this lack of need to tightly control our gardens means. The gardens in the town where I lived years ago in Southern California are the opposite, forcibly so. How is this moment in history influencing our garden design?

Judi - Aside from the fact that there are folks who prefer a very minimal landscaping (less maintenance) many suburban neighbourhoods have strictly enforced CC&Rs regarding what can be planted & where.
Also, if there are sidewalks, they belong to the city & the city can enforce a "no encroach" zone: nothing is allowed to enter the "sidewalk air space" so as not to impeed foot traffic. Glad I don't live in one of those neighbourhoods! Next thing they'll want to enforce is children not allowed to make noise outside...

Katye - I used to live in a neighborhood like that in Southern California, and clearly I did not belong there! Here we do have sidewalks that are owned by the city and we have the little strips of soil between the sidewalks and the streets. There are all sorts of things planted in those spaces, and more often than not plants ooze onto the sidewalks from both sides. No one seems to mind and it certainly adds character. Most of us do comply with the tree branch height over sidewalks so people don't get their eyes eviscerated.

So what I am thinking about is;
1. There are many types of gardening styles within one city or area.
2. There are many degrees of personal involvement on the part of the owners - taking care of your own yard or having a gardener and never personally wielding a garden tool.
3. Is this a reflection of the personalities of the people who choose to live in certain areas, or is it a response to what is happening in our country or the earth or something bigger than our neighborhoods? In other words, are our gardens reflections of our immediate worlds, or are they responding to a bigger picture, as Laurie was talking about?

I'm not sure the majority of people have a global outlook regarding their gardens/landscaping etc. Probably the biggest influences are:
The time/energy/desire one has to devote to property/landscape maintenance
Parameters due to lot size, adherance to CC&Rs, availability of resources - water/soil/plants, and zone.
What the rest of the neighbourhood looks like (conformity)
Trends/fads
No - you did NOT belong in the typical SoCal neighbourhood! LOL - too restrictive/cookie cutter for me, too. I really liked living in San Francisco - some areas have the most interesting gardens on the tiniest of lots. Nice grow-zone too!!!

what I never understood is how someone could be satisfied in a home with totally installed & maintained landscaping. I NEED to be outside and IN the garden, playing. And if money was not a factor, I would absolutely hire someone to do all the hardscaping. But I would tweak the heck out of something designed/installed.
Sheesh - I can't follow a recipe without changing it a little bit.
(BTW - there's never enough garlic or vanilla in most recipes...)

We are such kindred spirits. I can't stand the idea of someone telling me what I can and cannot plant. I thing it's positively unAmerican! I also believe that much of what people plant in a given area is at least in part due to the marketing in that area, driven by the upper echelon of plant geeks such as Sean Hogan, Dan Hinkley, Anne Lovejoy, etc. It's a matter of what people see over and over and then begin to desire because those things begin to look 'normal' to them.

Portland, I believe that the 'controlled chaos' look you are referring to is called 'lush' in gardeningese. Another similar term is 'overplanted' as in ' I overplant my garden so that no weeds can get through.'

I just wish, sometimes, that I was less like Kayte in always wanting to change things. Because of that personality trait, it is so hard to assign things for other people to do, or to get help with a project when I really need it. I never really know exactly what I want until I begin the building process. That doesn't work very well when you need others to do things for you.

Pix - I don't know if I will ever get that out of my system. BUT, this year I decided to discipline myself, so I would have more time to focus on the maintenance end. I love the heat - but with heat & dry comes watering. I'm very good in the hose-moving dept! I seeplants that are thriving, plants that need more shade or more sun, plants that were mistagged (grrrrrrrr), and my all-time fave: plants that were heeled in because "I'll move them in the fall" HAHAHAHAHAHA, which never happened in any of the months qualifying as Autumn for 2008.
(Oh dear...this recipe needs more vanilla!)
Then there is the vegetable/cutting garden, the orchard & the front landscaping to redo. OK - so this year I actually got sick of buying plants. Or even thinking about it. Well, that's a first! So a lot of it has to do with the damage-outcome of winter 2008-2009, the fact that I do it all by myself, and time/energy. I,too, cannot transfer what I have created in my head to reality until I have all necessary components assembled. I can attest to the time it takes to source & procure plants, especially for large areas, staging them & getting them permanent homes instead of leases in the pot ghetto. Finally - the necessity to create 3-dimensionally: well, lets just say I'm glad I am running out of space. My focus has shifted to discovering ways to minimize the amount of time needed to maintain it all well.
I think it's referred to as "Working smarter". LOL, until you mention "rocks" & my attention is immediately diverted! I get a bad case of "what if I" & "Hey, I could plant this over by that" & on & on & on.
I could not deal with being restricted in regards to what I plant or having to adhere to a particular style in order to please a Homeowner's Association. That's bull and unAmerican!

You said it!
I got a bit sick of buying plants this year, too. It was the darndest thing! One day i went to a nursery, and I just started to feel overwhelmed. Then I remembered my pot ghetto, which runneth over as ALWAYS, and I left without buying anything. It was a first for me! I am waiting for some things to mature, and I am taking things out to give others more room. I have finally decided that, YES, I will remove the mature red rhododendron that I have been unsure about for the last 9 years. I can hardly wait now.
Oh, I did buy a chocolate mimosa tree to go where that red rhododendron currently reigns.
The question of today: do I have too much Crocosmia 'Lucifer'? Is it possible to have too much of that plant?