cascadian telegrams

weekend bicycle ride

Last weekend was “Chilly Hilly” the first big bike ride of the season.  Those hills were tough!  So this weekend we took the scenic, nearby route and dropped down Meridian (with Malcolm in tow, of course) to Gas Works Park where we were treated to some gorgeous views of the city and Lake Union

 

from there it was onto the Chittenden Locks to take in the salt air and watch the boats go through, then a canal-side coffee in Fremont before climbing back up the hill to home.

Back @ home, the pears along the boulevard in are full bloom…. spring is bursting out all over!

spring

Irises are appearing in our garden now.  It’s an El Niño year this year so it seems we’re in for a warm and early spring.  There’s also lots of robin activity and the trees are budding.  I hope we don’t get a late freeze.

I like to say that spring comes “right on schedule” here in the Pacific Northwest (meaning right around the Spring Equinox, everything changes) but this year things are clearly early.  Apparently we had the warmest January on record here in Seattle.  Cliff Mass’ blog explains why.

garden path project weekend

man we are sore from removing 5-10 yards of fill and adding nearly 10,000 lbs of gravel, but our gravel garden path is ‘in’.

   

We have lots of lavender from the Seattle Tilth Edible Plant Sale, including Hidcote, English and Spanish varieties of different heights, plus some herbs and other herbaceous border plants for along the path.  By the time we’re done, none of the lousy grass sod we laid down last season will remain.  And not a moment too soon… it is crap.

This is quite literally ‘laying the groundwork’ for our garden but hopefully now the more fun part of adding plants begins in earnest.

more anchor tenants in the garden

after seeing Penguins I spent the rest of the day digging a big hole and planting a Coral Bark Japanese Maple along our fence.  That’s three new ‘anchor tenants’ in our garden including the ‘Everred’ Laceleaf Japanese Maple 

 

and a Hardy Kiwi to grow on the trellis over the gate.

The kiwi produces grape-sized kiwi fruit without the skin, fuzz or seeds, I’m excited to see what it produces!

Our work for the weekend is far from over though:  We have about 9000 lbs of gravel to set in for our garden path, and I’m going to pop by the Edible Plant Sale at Seattle Tilth up the road tomorrow to pick up cherry tomatoes for my friends.   I’m also on the hunt for an olive tree as I’ve read that arbequina spanish olives do OK here, and I’ve got just the spot (a sunny, western, warm concrete wall) for it!

Tree snaps from today are here.

spring is coming – new anchor tenants

It’s stil chilly, but we’re getting a taste of that warm, golden, west coast sun that lets you know that spring isn’t far away.  We’ve planted a few more ‘anchor tenants’ in the yard:  A magnolia, a wisteria and a japanese black pine shrub… still looking for a nice, multi-stem paperbark maple for the front corner though

  

Also Susan planted some rosemary around the rocks in the front and has bought some vegetable seeds… it will be nice to have a garden again, it’s been a few years.  She also picked up some nice indoor plants

     

plus we have some nice plants that our friend Elizabeth gave us to transplant (thanks E!).