The Bicycle-Gardening Chronicles...

Welsh poppies and lady ferns...

2011-06-01T22:44:00.000-07:00

...both self-sowing and lovely together. You really don't have to plant anything or design anything around here...if you like a waving palette of poppies, bluebells, fern-fronds etc. etc.

'Tis the time of year to submerge in plant energy and come up only when necessary. Magic.

I've just started up on facebook. 100 computer years later. That's how I roll. Whoops, cd's over, gotta switch it.

Island-time garden design...

2011-06-01T21:57:00.000-07:00

Here are some design ideas from Keats Island this past long weekend...(two weeks ago already?)

While I am mildly confused by the rock, I was pleasantly surprised to discover at least one other stump-chair-maker in B.C. (my dad is one).

It takes a certain presence of mind, whilst chain-sawing down a large evergreen tree, to think, "Well, while I'm here, I may as well make a chair."

This person took it to another level, with arm-rests, and a mysterious planting in the seat. That also confuses me a little bit. But still, let's hear it for stump-chairs.

This next item cannot be easily duplicated, due to the time lapse required for the child's bicycle to assume a nostalgic patina whilst hanging in yon olde apple tree. A classic bicycle-garden moment.

This little Full Moon maple (Acer shirasawanum 'Aurea') claims the semi-shade by the kitchen window--a delicate tree amidst the rugged island woods.

So ya--gardener's holiday with the girls--we mowed the grass, and that's about it...

Fern Fables: Sword and Maidenhair

2011-05-20T00:02:00.000-07:00

Our storybook sword-ferns are waking up in woodland-gardens on the north shore (here, bordering the steps to Daphne's grotto garden). Whoever still thinks that ferns are unassuming creatures trembling in dark corners has never looked a sword fern in the fiddlehead(s).

Sword ferns/Polystichum munitum can perch on precipices, border bedrock...

... or sink into the mellow dappled light of an understorey--and clearly draw a circle of personal space with their arching fronds.

Mine. All mine.

Maidenhair ferns/Adiantum pedatum are not as stalwart, but they are obviously happy in the pics below--basking in evening light, but shaded during the day, with an overstorey of rhododendrons and mature evergreens. These may be, in fact, the happiest maidenhairs I've ever seen (in Jim & Rojeanne's garden).

An illumination of unfurling fern fronds...

...

Something storybook about ferns...

Sunshine therapy

2011-05-18T22:58:00.000-07:00

Such a beautiful day, I had to post my pics right away, lest the "rainy day blues" taint my blog for too long! I think many many people were finding excuses to be outside basking today. Sunshine therapy, so good.

Here's Leopard's Bane/Doronicum orientale--a little stunted this year with the cold, but still high enough to crest the Hosta 'Krossa Regal.'

Doronicum is the earliest yellow daisy and prefers light shade--it leaps out in spring then goes dormant soon after blooming. Apparently, it also discourages leopards, which can be convenient.

Seems like English bluebells are in a lot of shots these days. Kind of like those blokes that jump into other people's pictures...

An evening view, below, of all things green and growing in Jim & Rojeanne's Old Apple Tree garden. [Check out the circle of sky, mirroring the pathway. I did not plan that. O, the wonders of photography.]

One of the green-and-growing things is this patch of rose whips, snipped from the mother rose in Sue and Hugh's garden and sunk in the soil last fall. I set up a quick wigwam so they wouldn't get lost over the winter...and excavated them from amongst the English bluebells (funny that) to see how they're getting along...

And look! They're setting buds already! Now that's a rose.

Here's the old momma rose--pic from last year--a single crimson red with a name that may have disappeared in the halls of time. However, the point being: if you see a rose you love, ask for a whip and stick it in the ground (preferably in fall). Et Voila.

This pic (below) is the Mexican Mock Orange/Choisya ternata, which is almost as perfect as it can get this year. Usually, choisyas suffer somewhat over the winter and die back a bit, but this sea-level garden is a choisya-friendly micro-climate. I have to cut the stair-side back hard right after it blooms or it would engulf the stairs by midsummer. If you prune promptly, the plant will set new growth and an even bloom for the next year.

Bella bella.

Gumboots are Sexy

2011-05-16T21:38:00.000-07:00

So shiny.

I was feeling a little blue (couldn't be the constant downpours, drizzle, sheets of rain, mud, green slime, wads of wet gloves in cold puddles at the bottom of saddle-bags, etc. could it??) when I schlepped into a Starbucks in my muddy buddies. The barista filled up my thermos and gave me a lop-sided grin. "On the house!"

"But why?" I gaped. My brain went through exactly this sequence: "Do I look needy?Does my garden gear make me look like a hobo?? Is he even allowed to do that?...Why is he smiling like that?..."

I'm so going to write a rainy day blues song about baristas.

More Plants of the Week...

2011-05-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

1. Flowering crab-apples.

Isn't this a little beauty--in Anne & Peter's garden. It's either Malus 'Magenta' or Malus 'Brandywine.' I'll check with them when I see them next and do a little post-posting edit.

Flowering crabs seem to come in a wider variety of colours--from whites and pale pinks to deep magentas and reds--than our regular blossomy fruit trees. I also learned last year, at a Forest-Food Garden (Permaculture) workshop with Richard Walker, that crabs can cross-pollinate with any apple tree, so that's an added bonus.

We're a little challenged on the North Shore with scabby/rainy weather diseases on fruit trees, so have to be selective with varieties. (Whatever local nurseries carry is your best bet.) Some of the best-producing fruit trees I've witnessed over here are the Asian apple-pears and a round golden plum (we think it's a 'Golden Gage' instead of a 'Green Gage' plum) that is straight out of a Greek myth, like you turn into a frolicking little god when you eat it. So good. Buuut I've never seen the tree for sale in nurseries because it's fallen out of fashion due to the fact that the fruit is soo bursting with juicy goodness that it is impossible to pack for shipping. So ironic. I'm getting off topic.

2. Hostas. Welcome back, faithful foliage friends. We love you. Here, 'Francee' with a quince-petal smooch.

3.English bluebells (Endymion non-scriptus). Love 'em or hate 'em, they're here. Apparently, there's an inspiring scene in the movie Howard's End that will convert the most embittered blue-bell vanquisher. Curiously, the species is non-scriptus, which is latin for "not worth writing about." Funny that. Nice blue tho.

4. Tree paeonies (Paeonia suffruticosa). They do really well in big pots, and unfailingly produce opulent buds and opulent blooms that make you feel like you should take them out on the town.

Let's go dancing.

Oldie-But-Goodie Reel Mower for Reel Men/Women

2011-05-10T23:09:00.000-07:00

Mower on the left is a modern re-make of the mower on the right: at least fifty years old, recently back in service after a roller-replacement (but not sharpened), and about as heavy as six bags of cement. Guess which one works best?

Hands down, the antique version. Is it the extra weight? I'm not a reel mower expert, as I mow exactly one postage-stamp lawn (have we had this discussion before...). So I'm thinking that the handle could be more ergonomic, but hey, if you can start on the downhill to get the thing going, this is a one-pass-and-yer-done reason to go back in time.

Half-mooning Perennials

2011-05-10T22:47:00.000-07:00

Hey. I'm a gardener of few words these days. Hmm. Must be May. "Can't talk--digging."

May will be gorgeous any day now. Oh ya, supposed to rain all day tomorrow. Wah-hoo (emphasis on wah)

"Give me sunshine or give me gumboots!" (It is possible to alter all famous quotes to one's own purposes.)

Here's a few samples of thinkin' ahead and bracing perennials that you just know are going to flop all over your lawn/pathway/small children.

Those are Japanese anemones (above) that will grow 3-4 feet tall and make life hard for the lawn mower if you let 'em. Those are hazel switches, harvested from wild hazel on the property (a great source of switches). My personal rule is "never throw out a long straight bendy switch of anything" because it will come in handy, even if you're just fending off wild animals.

This (above) is a piece of driftwood in 'my' garden, which may successfully encourage the bleeding heart to remain relatively upright instead of weeping all over the place as usual.

La.

Astonishing-ly Pink Japanese Maple

2011-05-10T22:41:00.000-07:00

Every year it happens, and every year I am astonished. I still don't know what variety/cultivar this is, so if anyone knows, please enlighten me.

Everything in Bud

2011-05-10T22:21:00.000-07:00

azalea and aztec pearl choisya..apple blossom and paeony...

let me lose my capitals and italics

let latin and common names give way to each other

to the buds of spring on rainy days

to the fruits and flowers to follow

Kerria japonica, Fritillaria imperialis Updates!

2011-05-02T11:32:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know I posted these as my Plants of the Week two weeks ago, but they just got better. I'm always extra-impressed by flowers that are as big as my head.

I'm also happy to report that, in the rain, Fritillarias don't stink. Not a trace of the skunky musk that emanated from the bulbs/even the leaves as they emerged. Also, the fact that they bloom so early, before poolside lounging is really a feasible activity, makes them a pleasing poolside planting...even if they do tend to stink on sunny days (who would know, these days?).

I'm also doing a little promo here for the underplanting of Anemone coronaria (the ones that florists use), in a lovely complementary shade of blue. So, as you can see, they bloom at exactly the same time. (I totally planned that :D)

And here's the Kerria japonica again, looking even better. Ah, May.

Update on Stop The Pave--South Fraser Perimeter Road

2011-05-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

Here, back in the vicinity this past Sunday, for the Pilgrimage to Burns Bog--the priceless Fraser estuary wetland also in the path of the ill-conceived freeway.

We pilgrim-types enjoyed a cello-performance beside an ill-fated bulldozer, slowly disappearing into a sink-hole after an ill-fated joy-ride some years back (unrelated to the current freeway-building fiasco). This would actually make a good horror-movie: every time developers approach the bog, they get sucked down into the muck, then emerge as zombies to defend the bog for all time. Bog justice.

The Burns Bog Conservation Society, the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, the David Suzuki Foundation, the Sacred Web Choir, and leaders from Hindu, Jewish, and Unitarian faith communities all spoke/sang for the bog, and we also heard an update from the Stop the Pave campers occupying the roadbed closeby. They've now (as of Monday) been camped out for nine days, and the police/road-builders have so far said they aren't seeking an injunction to remove them. Nobody likes a fuss right before a national election...

I was fortified by the network of influential supporters represented in the crowd, and by the campers who have the strength of spirit to stand up/pitch a tent for what is right.

FYI: Home Routes House Concerts!

2011-05-02T10:22:00.000-07:00

Welcome to May Monsoon Monday Morning--waiting out the deluge, before I go vote/work/be a contributing member of society.

Here, I'm deviating from usual topics a wee bit, because I'm sooo excited about last week's discovery: Home Routes House Concerts.

I don't have a related pic, so here's an enthusiastic tulip..

Woo!

So, for folksie/bluesy/live music fans, my latest and greatest discovery is the HCHR phenomenon. Basically, some folks who originally set up folk festivals have come up with the idea of developing concert circuits through private homes.

Last week, I saw *Valdy* in a house down the road, with about 40 other guests, who brought potluck appies/BYOB and 20$ each for the performance--which went directly to the artist. So a)it felt like a house party b) it was a house party, with a Juno-award-winning musician leading the charge. So fantastic.

I think Valdy said he'd been wending his way through western Canada for 16 days, with a house concert every night--that's through small and large communites alike, on an established "home route." This is not only a genius development for talented performers, saving the overhead of costly venues/promotions etc., but it is also possibly the best way to enjoy their music (excepting a grassy knoll over a lake on a summer evening..?).

The caliber of participating musicians is the likes of Po' Girl, Lester Quitzau, Bill Bourne and Madagascar Slim--among many others that, even if they're new to me, I'd absolutely trust that I'd enjoy them.

So basically, get on the insider list if you can--google HRHConcerts and find a local contact--I think they're all over Canada and the States (why has it taken me so long to find out about them...).

They are also always looking for new host-homes, so if your house can hold about 30/40 people, you too can be the cool kid on the block. Given that the musical genre is folk-fest/world music, the fanbase tends to be respectful of the space (I don't think anyone's going to start a Rave/Rockstar Route anytime soon.)

Soupe du jour: Goutweed

2011-04-24T20:32:00.000-07:00

Okay, Mr. Nassichuck: this one's for you...since you seem to share my incredulity that this stuff is edible.

I sort of followed the recipe at http://tofufortwo.net/2008/05/21/goutweed-soup, which involved frying two onions & garlic, adding a generous slosh of white wine, two cups of veggie broth (used the Harvest Sun organic veg bouillon cubes), and two packed cups of GOUTWEED straight from the weedy patches out in my garden, then briefly bringing it to a boil, adding a half cup of bread crumbs, and blending it up in the blender.

Voila--tasty, with no weediness whatsoever. I gather that you can just use goutweed as a replacement for spinach/kale, as I also saw an omelette recipe, and I don't notice any strong flavour that requires careful balancing. But then, it's hard to compete with garlic and onions... I guess hardcore wild-crafters out there would do a salad, straight-up.

...I just did more online research, because I had the fleeting thought that, despite its edible-ness, goutweed might have no nutritional value whatsoever...and I just found a very cool website called Sacred Earth: Ethnobotany and Ecotravel with a goutweed discussion at http://www.sacredearth.com/ethnobotany/foraging/Goutweed.php Woo-hoo! There are more recipes on this page. So apparently, "it is a good source of vitamin C and A as well as minerals such as iron and manganese" etc. etc.

Eat your soup kids!

"Stop the Pave" community action

2011-04-24T11:51:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to hear reports today on CBC radio about the community protest on the South Fraser freeway construction site.

On Friday (Earth Day) I cycled out to Delta with a friendly convoy of activists/cyclists/permaculturists/media reps meeting up with the protest march organized by the Stop the Pave folks.

The South Fraser freeway is just part of an extensive plan around the lower mainland to construct major freeways through sensitive communities/agricultural land/ecological sites in order to "ease traffic congestion" to the ports/city centres. As usual, billions of dollars are freely distributed for backwards-thinking projects, ignoring transit/rail/tugboat options that would provide more sustainable solutions.

Protestors are camping onsite over the Easter weekend, and plan to disrupt work on Tuesday. I guess we'll hear more then. Highway projects such as this have been stopped before, even at this stage. It's not just a local issue--although residents in the area have obvious health/environmental concerns.

For me, it's an "if not now, when?" issue. Do we keep powering through economic priorities until we all go up in smoke? Or do we start factoring in survival issues, and recognize that we are quite mistaken in the belief that "economy-first" thinking protects our comforts/lifestyle/standard of living.

What are we willing to sacrifice to keep stocking Walmart and shipping raw resources out to feed the Chinese industrial machine, a well-known environmental and human rights offender?

Here's a view back from the Alex Fraser Bridge, to the freeway cut-bank site next to River Road in Delta. For coverage, see http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/ for Dawn Paley's articles and Sandra Cuffe's photo essays, or see http://stopthepave.org/ for organization information.

To end on a warm fuzzy note, here's a bit more yarn-bombing on Commercial Drive--I'm seeing a theme here...knitting for things we care about...

Street Tree Preservation

2011-04-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

I ventured over town this past week, for a gardening day at Bev's ("over town" being north shore terminology for crossing bridges to big city Vancouver). I don't do this often, but Bev used to live over here and moved to one of my favourite neighbourhoods (Commercial Drive) so I broke my rule about crossing bridges... Here she is, backlit with the East 6th Elms (and Baggins the Scoot).

One of the nice things about being "over town" is the profusion of avenues lined with magnificent old hardwoood trees. I love riding through the cool tunnels of over-arching branches in the summer, and the lace-work of bare branches in the winter is a relief from linear concrete.

In fact, just last week, I was taking pics of trees for painting-references...

...and I think I took this one of the Hornbeams somewhere near West Broadway because the pruning of the trees around the hydro lines on the right side seemed so drastic, however necessary.

So this week, the topic came around to the East 6th Ave neighbourhood fight to save their elms, 31 of which were pronounced unstable by the Vancouver Parks Board and slated for removal.

The local community stepped up and challenged the assessment, demanding a more discriminating process with a much higher priority to preserve the treescape. As a result, the number of trees slated for immediate removal was reduced to six!

Thanks to this community action, the Vancouver Parks Board is revising their street tree management plan in consultation with local residents, formally recognizing the environmental, heritage and community value of trees.

I thought I'd include a truncated list (pardon the pun) from the East 6th Elm Fact Sheet, to remind us all of the wide-ranging benefits of street-trees. Their reference is "Planting Our Future - A Tree Toolkit for Communities' published by the Union of BC Municipalities, 2008.

Trees:

Create livable communites

Are good for business

Encourage people to visit

Reduce stormwater costs

Prolong the life of pavement

Make communities safer

Provide recreational and educational opportunities

Increase property values

Provide stress relief

Reduce noise

Support biodiversity

Support ecosystem function

Help protect streams and aquatic habitats

Conserve and enhance soil productivity

Support sustainable transportation

Improve air quality

Provide air to breathe

Improve water quality

Reduce the heat island effect

Reduce energy bills

Garden Make-over using existing plants...

2011-04-24T09:33:00.000-07:00

We decided to revive this section of Jim & Wren's garden (two "before" pictures below), where rampant English bluebells have taken over, the big round Hebe buxifolia suffered a final bout of winter damage, and Wren wants an overall "simplification" and "coherence" of the planting.

The dead grass bits cover the as-yet bare patch where the giant banana grove will emerge shortly. So you have to imagine that a giant banana grove is part of the picture... That's a grape on the arbour, and a fig tree's bare gray branches to the right.

This is another view (fig branches on the left/damaged Hebes in the foreground), extending to the other garden bed beyond the banana grove and the dividing pathway. I'll be rearranging that bed this coming week.

So here's the garden make-over, still at a stage where you have to play "Imagine With Me"...

Stepping stones rearranged in an arch around banana grove and aligned with steps.

English bluebells removed (save that errant patch right next to the patio...??) and transplanted to a no-man's-land around the side of the house.

Lavender transplanted in an arch around the stones.

Dutch iris from elsewhere in garden transplanted to pocket bed between stones/lavender.

See photo below for different angle...

Three Hebe ochracea 'James Stirling' (the bronzy-gold-green whipchord hebe, which remains the hardiest and most un-hebe-like cultivar) are now grouped just to the left of the lavender-arch.

Brilliant orange Asian lilies transplanted in front of the hebe, divided from two pots on the deck.

Deep blue Siberian iris/Iris sibirica divided from one large patch into a swath in front of the upright grass/Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster', also divided and extended into a swath sweeping around the Magnolia grandiflora 'Little Gem' and Choisya ternata 'Aztec Pearl' just outside the picture frame on the left.

So this was fun, and I've saved bits of the perennials to work into the layout on the other side of the pathway. The oranges/bronzes/blues should "pop" together, and the overall shapes of the foundation plantings frame the focal points (banana/fig/magnolia) in a new, pleeeaaasing way (I feel very British when I say that. I'm not British.)

I'll post pics when everything flushes later in the season.

Little Farmers

2011-04-20T23:07:00.000-07:00

Another little excerpt from Ghana...

Following the lives of the kids in Easy's family--the four sons of his late brother Aryikwey, and his grandson, little Richard/Maruf/Okaija (the land of many names...).

It's Easter break in Ghana, so Jerry and Ayi (standing next to the tall young lady) are off to the farms in the green hills of Aburi with their cousins and cutlasses. The kids do go to school, but from what I hear, they also spend a lot of time out on the farms. There isn't as much emphasis on education in the village, where most parents have little schoolling themselves and kids are expected to pull their weight (or more than their weight in some cases) just putting food on the table. The two brothers moved out there with their mom after their dad died last summer.

Jerry (left, below) looks like his late father, Aryikwey (Ah-yee-kway), and Ayi is a miniature of Easy/Aryeetey (Ah-yee-tay). Plans are in the works to find a place in town (Accra) where Jerry can stay and go to a better school.

They did come into town for the weekend because Jerry needed some medicine, so Easy took their half-brother Isaac (below), who lives in town, to stay with them.

"They are happy together," Easy laughs, although the reunion is missing the eldest and fourth half-brother, Nee Amah, who is with his mom in Ada--near the beautiful Volta River estuary, hours away.

Here's an updated picture (second pic below) of little Richard, who was born when I was there in 2009. Last time I saw him, he looked like this...
...and now he's a little man in some pretty fine shoes:

Richard is living with his father's family now, as his very young mom is facing the challenges of the hard hand she's been dealt on many many levels. She'll survive it though.

Edible "Weeds": Aegopodium podagraria/Goutweed

2011-04-17T23:45:00.000-07:00

Also known as "Aaaaaagh-opodium."

Ironically, I often say to myself, "Wouldn't it be funny if a plant that we constantly curse in our gardens turned out to be...edible/medicinal/pleasantly hallucinogenic/etc. ?"

I actually found out last spring that Goutweed is edible, because a friend noticed some Korean ladies harvesting a patch outside his fence, inquired about their mission, and later received a sample of the savoury and stir-fried dish they had prepared with it. (That said, please don't go out grazing without clear identification.)

I was reminded of this, when I optimistically tackled this crop at Daphne's this past week.

Goutweed, besides curing gout in medieval days and making nice Korean stir-fry, is a terrible, terrible weed to try to eradicate from garden beds. My only hope is to force its retreat back from the area where we want to plant perennials. I've dug a trench between "weeded soil" and the rockwall/shrubberies that are already hopelessly invaded with Goutweed's running roots. In the trench, I'll install a line of metal flashing, sunk to bedrock in this shallow soil.

In two weeks, I'll go back and re-weed any fragments that have resurrected themselves (as they do) and remain vigilant for the next ten years.

Alternatively, I will make Aaagh-opodium soup, or perhaps invent an Aaagh-opodium Green Drink. There's enough supply. A quick google reveals many recipe suggestions for Goutweed, but not much info about nutritional value. Can we not assume that all leafy green edible things are terribly terribly good for you?

[**See April 24th post because I found more info/made soup etc.**]

Plants of the week...Kerria japonica, Fritillaria imperialis (etc.)...and a yacht.

2011-04-17T22:32:00.000-07:00

First, a couple beauties from "my" gardens...

Here's a promo for Kerria japonica, the lovely shrub with bright green arching stems that bloom like so at this time of year.

Hard to capture its loveliness on camera--a very delicate fountain of round yellow buds held on the topside of the branches, blooming first from the tips. Every spring, Anne & I congratulate ourselves for planting it next to the front steps, where everyone gets a top-down view (and where it remains an attractive specimen with its fresh green colour and vase-like shape throughout the season.)

And below, the Fritillaria imperialis at Roswitha's are suddenly set to burst. If I miss them, I will be rightfully ticked, as this is the first time I've grown them.

And...a cycle-by garden on a harbour-front road in Vancouver over the weekend. Isn't this an amazing combination...

Purple heather, red-stemmed 'Senkaki' Japanese maple, and the chartreuse flowers of Euphorbia characias 'Wulfenii'. Love it.

And below, this was a moment that I wish I could have shared with every sentient being in the universe.

There was a biting wind off the harbour, the sky was clear sunshine and cherry clouds, and the air was a wild pink petal-storm. Gotta love the west coast.

And oh ya, there was this yacht. The biggest yacht I've ever seen. That is a tanker in close proximity, for scale. I'm not particularly interested in yachts, but this was like a UFO landing.

Silver Tree Pendant

2011-04-17T22:20:00.000-07:00

Here are my authentically-dirty gardener-fingers, presenting a pendant necklace designed by Tashi (Wren and Jim, for whom I work). As you can see, the lovely little Japanese Maple in the background modelled for it. I think this may be a gardener's definition of delight.

There certainly has been a run of tree-inspired artwork lately--and I just heard today that 2011 is the "Year of the Tree." So there you go.

You can find Tashi jewelry online, and also in local gift-shops. (I think my career as a hand-model may have just been launched.)

In between the rains...

2011-04-10T16:17:00.000-07:00

...take time to admire the Narcissus (naturally)...

...and the Anemone blanda casting a starburst shadow...

...and new delphinium leaves stretching like sunbrellas...

Okay, that should keep us going for the next week of forecast rain.

Tree-Cozy Yarn-Bomb

2011-04-10T15:28:00.000-07:00

These have been showing up around town, and they make me happy. I'm knot a knitter, but I'm all for hugging trees.

Skunk Cabbage/Swamp Lantern/Lysichiton americanum

2011-04-10T15:01:00.000-07:00

Must be spring...ah, the scent of swamp lanterns in the gullies; here, creekside at Patricia and Bob's.

Apparently, indigenous people used to rely on these as "famine food" in the early spring. That means they don't taste very good.

This gully has been over-run by the notorious silver-nettle vine/Lamium maculatum, which is commonly sold in nurseries and often comes in annual hanging baskets. People tend to toss spent annual baskets "over the bank", where the silver-nettle vine takes hold and spreads like wildfire. Between this and rampant Himalayan blackberry and a peculiar herbaceous invasive bamboo, this gully becomes impenetrable without some shared vigilance between me & the neighbour.

Guerrilla Composting and Associated Fashion Tips

2011-04-10T13:25:00.000-07:00

[Addendum to previous post: Compost, Worms, Mulching: All Good Things]

If you live on the edge of society, as a renter for example, you may not have ultimate authority over what kind of Soil-Improvement System is installed in your vicinity. Landlords n' ladies have their own ideas about what category "composting" falls into, and vermin-attracting is one.

I know, I know, the irony is astounding: that I (who find it genetically and vocationally impossible to throw organic matter into the garbage) can't install the municipal-standard-issue black plastic composter in "my" garden...but there is a way.

Initially, I had a Worm-Composter--basically, a worm farm in a large rubbermaid bin--that turned out to be a little small for my composting needs. I could still do it--if I had two rubbermaid bins, but I discovered Guerrilla Composting in the meantime.

First thing is to allay suspicion by donning whimsical apparel, like this fleece-lined bandana-babushka, available at Mark's Work Wearhouse.

The bandana-babushka is very versatile, and while it also mainly functions as a scooter-neckerchief, it also provides an effective disguise (opening photo) while guerrilla-composting.

Guerrilla-composting is simple. Dig a hole. At least one foot down. Dump in your bucket of kitchen compost and mash it up with your shovel. Cover up and pat down. I have a large heavy stepping stone that I plunk on the spot, to discourage small digging critters that may be so inclined.

I also have two or three "digging spots" and by the time I rotate through them, the compost has broken down and more can be added without overloading and attracting vermin. I've never had a problem with rats/raccoons digging for the goodies buuut I once had a bear toss aside my stepping stone like a flip-top beer cap and mess around. So I tend to limit my guerrilla tactics to the bear-offseason.

In my landlord n' lady's defense, we do back onto a greenbelt/wildlife corridor, and it is common in the summer to have black bears wander through the neighbourhood. That said, these bears are usually attracted by far-superior garbage odours--which would be virtually eliminated if you have a functioning compost system and don't put food waste in the garbage cans. Except for meats/grains of course.

One day, the municipality will include compost-pickup on garbage days. Or we will all keep chickens and feed it all to them. And then I can retire my bandito-bandana-babushka.

Compost, Worms, Mulching: All Good Things

2011-04-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

Here's the newest **On-Site Soil-Improvement System** at Roswitha's: built last year by Allen, who officially comes to clean the pool and ends up building composters/fostering cats etc. (Sometimes Roswitha's is like a sitcom.) The boards in the front panel can slide up and out for easy shovel/fork access when the piles need turning or emptying. The plywood lid is invisibly propped back against the fence.

This (above, still) is exactly one-season's worth of yard-waste compost. I turned it over this winter, to see how much it had broken down, and was pleased with all the humus-y material.

I should clarify that I was selective about what I put in there--mainly perennial and annual soft green debris, pond scum, and soft deciduous tree leaves (as opposed to cedar or crunchy rhodo leaves). I wanted the pile to compost quickly and cleanly, so I dumped weedy/woody debris on discard piles elsewhere on the property. (In fact, I leave a lot of natural leaf debris in place in the woodland garden, and use cedar debris to mulch pathways.)

There was still a lot of leafy debris in the mix, so I rescued an ancient soil-sifter from the ancient greenhouse, and attempted to sift. The compost was too clumpy, the wire mesh too small, so this was too time-consuming. (I use a bucket instead of a wheelbarrow, because this property is too steep, so Sherpa-techniques work better.)

So I found this wire in the garage, and started sifting. The biggest bits went into my Lee Valley canvas bag...

...and I distributed this bounty of leaf-mulch around big rhododendrons and magnolias.

I ended up with several Sherpa-loads of fine compost--and you can't buy stuff this good.

Humus like this is full of active bacteria and nutrients...and worm poo...

These are Red Wigglers, the worm genus that tends to hang out in compost bins. If you've heard of Worm Composters/Bins, these are the guys you want. After bacteria break down organic matter, Red Wigglers move in and "process" it into a nutrient-rich humus directly accessible to plants. In human terms, it's like taking grain and processing it into bread--a form that we can digest.

If you see these little golden space-pods in your compost, you know you have a healthy system going on. (They're worm eggs.) The little pillbug ambling through the shot is also part of the compost community.

So we ended up with enough sifted compost to mulch all the pots/planters on the pool deck...

You can buy soil amenders, but nothing compares to fresh compost.

Yellow Tree, Blue Tree...Red Tree

2011-04-04T22:11:00.000-07:00

I'm seeing these Cornelian-cherry dogwoods everywhere, ever since I commented on them in an earlier post. So ya, edible fruit. July-ish. Pretty tree--and I've been seeing them as street trees and around condos. They bloom at the same time as forsythia--the scrambly shrub everyone loves for its early showy yellow bouquets. Tends to out-shine the Cornelian-cherry, which accounts for my not taking much notice in the past, but you can't eat forsythia so..!

Can't miss these...

Love it. On the corner of 14th and Marine in West Van, Australian artist Konstantin Dimopoulos has just installed this "environmental performance art" called The Blue Trees. They're going to bloom, hopefully before the rain washes all the water-base paint off. I want to paint myself blue and stand next to them with a pink umbrella. I want to have a picnic under them on a blue blanket. I want a flock of bluebirds to land in them.

**next day**

I couldn't resist adding a "Red Tree" to my Dr. Seuss list...

This is the Coralbark maple/Acer japonicum 'Sango Kaku/Senkaki' with the bright red new growth of Photinia x fraseri behind.

Also in John and Margot's garden, the Katsura tree/Cercidiphyllum japonicum below flushes out reddish, and the leaves shift blue-green later in the season.

Liquid sunshine after a cold deluge all morning!

Spring Clean-up of Ornamental Grasses

2011-04-04T12:09:00.000-07:00

Here's a few shots of mangy-lookin' grasses that need a little spring clean-up. (Also Spiderpants Coupey, svelte-ly and subtly keeping company with the gardener.)

Some ornamental grasses, like the semi-evergreen blue oatgrass/Helictotrichon below, just require a good hand-combing at this time of year. This grass will release dead brown bits as easily as...a cat sheds fur...leaving a nice crop of live blue blades.

Other grasses, like the tall and wavy maidenhair/Miscanthus or the short n' plumey fountain/Pennisetum grasses (no pics available) look even more brown and broken this time of year because they die back to the ground in winter. You can't tug away the dead stems--you have to cut everything back to within about 4 inches from the ground, and let the new shoots emerge from the base.

Some grasses that are usually evergreen here in mild-wintered Vancouver actually suffered freezer-burn in the sudden frost last November. I usually don't have to cut back this big swath of Carex 'Ice Dance'--but I did this year.

Unfortunately, I don't have an "after" shot (it was probably pouring rain at the end of the day). I did shear it back into little green and white variegated hedgehogs. Looks funny for a while until it resprouts (unless you like hedgehogs) but better than a bank of dead salad. (Those are bunches of 'King Alfred' daffodils coming up through the 'Ice Dance.'

Those are the only recent & random grass pics I have--hope that was helpful.

The Egg Came First.

2011-03-28T19:35:00.000-07:00

Recently, your local (or not-so-local) bicycle/scooter-gardener has been painting these...nests.

It's springtime right? I'm probably channelling the vibe.

Also recently, I got a call from Easy Man Okai (our man on the ground in Ghana). A very strange thing has happened, he said.

Apparently, he had found an egg on his bed (in his shop). In all time, such a thing has never happened. The gate to his shop is locked. Huh, he thought, and removed the egg to a metal dish in the corner. Who would do such a thing? Sometimes, in Ghana, people use eggs to perform spells (believe it or not). Easy was uneasy.

The next day, when he returned to his shop, everything was in disarray, as if someone had been in a flurry. The egg was on the floor, and it was cracked. Easy put it back in the dish. Easy called me.

I could not stop laughing. I'm sorry, I said, between gasps. You have to ask around. Ask anyone if they've seen a chicken entering your shop.

He did. They had.

The fellows next door also have a cat. Perhaps the cat and the chicken had an encounter. Easy was relieved. Perhaps, he said, I will eat the egg.

None of this deterred the chicken.

The next day, Easy found another egg on his bed. And the next day, another. You may think Easy was not getting much sleep by this point, but the above photo is a specially-arranged photo-shoot.

By egg three, he had made a nest of rags under his bed. The chicken transitioned well, and continued laying in the nest. He left three eggs for the chicken to sit on, and ate the rest with friends. The yolks were very yellow. Very nice, he said. I had a joke for him: How do you like your eggs? Under Easy. (ho ho--I had to explain it tho.)

So there she sits. Chicken lady is used to him now. No problems. And very very handy, when you want an egg for breakfast.

Oh--and very interesting, because I do believe I've performed a little manifestation with my egg paintings. Maybe it was a spell after all ;)

Japanese Maple Make-Over

2011-03-24T20:22:00.000-07:00

Here's a "before-and-after" if I ever saw one...

Exhibit A: new-to-me garden, mature weeping Japanese Maple with lots of accumulated dead wood.

This is the easiest and most gratifying pruning job ever: stick your arms into the birdsnest, and gently wave them around. Tinder-dry deadwood will snap off live branches like popcorn.

I only used my saw to remove larger dead branches, and fine-tuned dead twigs by hand. And Voila...

Japanese Maples should look good year-round; they are naturally elegant with a little TLC. I didn't prune any live/green wood, as this isn't the best time of year for that, with all nature's forces rushing to life. Pruning at this time of year tends to stimulate new growth, and I don't want any zealous wing-y branches launching into the stratosphere, so will touch up (if necessary) in the summer slow-down.

Happy Spring!

2011-03-21T22:55:00.000-07:00

whoot ! whoot ! (a crocus shot from yesterday's sunshine)

Here's the next BIG NEST painting...hmm I think I know why I felt like painting nests.

Please don't copy this and make a million bucks. Or, if you do, share with me. Actually, the camera's on a low-quality setting, so you can't. Ha.

Big Nest II (28" x 34", acrylic on canvas)

A very wet n' dreary first day of spring, but I was nevertheless out and about, covered in mud. The mailman was wearing shorts (optimistically) and we shared a wail over the weather.

Spring Countdown...

2011-03-19T19:54:00.000-07:00

The calls are comin' in...and the Harley/Scooter/Bicycle-Gardener rides again. (I know, it's getting complicated.)

Little Lungworts luring the Hummingbirds north in Daphne's garden...(Lungwort is also known as Pulmonaria--so lets agree to call it that from now on.)
It's amazing the difference a week makes! Granted, the previous snowy entry was from a last-weekend-of-semi-hibernation trip up to the Shuswap (400 km northeast) for a gathering of the clan. Still snow up there, but warm, with birds singing, and enough thaw for my niece to make mud pies in the snow banks while I chopped wood. The birds weren't singing here until this past weekend either.

So, winter pruning is finished in most gardens and I'm moving on to general clean-ups/soil amending/perennial dividing/transplanting/new plantings etc. etc.! Hmm. Suddenly I feel busy...

How wonderful that the world is blooming again. Sending some of this good energy to places in the world that need it...Japan...Libya...

2 days to Spring!

To Harley or Not to Harley...?

2011-03-17T00:17:00.000-07:00

...is not even a question.

Just thought I'd do a quick client poll*:
Would my cool factor go up if I pulled into your driveway on this, rather than a Honda Ruckus?

Or perhaps a little overkill...?

Since your average Harley Davidson suffers from an astounding lack of carrying capacity for even short-handled gardening tools, I'm going to have to pass.

I would also have to change my image and possibly wipe the delirious smile off my face.

Although, with almost 8000 km under my belt on the Ruckus, I'm feeling like a few more cc's may be on my bucket list...

*(my polls are rhetorical)

A Little Spring Advance...

2011-03-10T20:32:00.000-08:00

Hallelujah Helleborus! (Never thought I'd see "hallelujah" and "hell" in the same sentence.) A chorus of Helleborus in Sue and Hugh's garden, in a rare and revitalizing sunshower this week. Soak up your Vitamin D while you can!

Here's some more medicine for your eyeballs: crocus! crocus! crocus! (I've gone a little mad but there is hope.)

This garden is very sea-level and southern-exposed, so is farther ahead than the mountain-side perches of us valley/treeline dwellers. It's nice to lose elevation and gain some sanity when there's a break in the weather.

I'm posting the following pics of a Cornus mas/Corneliancherry Dogwood because I've noticed in the past few years that these are prolific fruiting trees--edible too. They bear a multitude of small oblong red drupes that everyone seems to ignore.

However, thanks to my googling skills, I learn that they taste like a cross between cranberry and sourcherry, and are therefore used for syrups/jams, and various beverages in Eastern European and Middle Eastern countries. Also of note, Corneliancherries are not fully ripe and flavourful until they drop, which makes foraging a little difficult. Unless you lay a tarp under a tree and shake it...? I wonder if North Vancouverites could find them, dried and salted, in local Persian food stores?

Anyways, if you see a tree around like this, go back and visit it in mid-July and see for yourself!

Still Raining, Still Painting (on International Women's Day)

2011-03-09T09:36:00.000-08:00

Here's the big version of my nest study. Nest I.

Nest II coming up.

My sister has been appointed as Marketing Director. Her birthday is on International Women's Day (not a prerequisite, but still). I had to explain the genesis of the nest theme.

I said, "Hmm, I just liked that nest rock."

This one.

But nests are incredibly symbolic. I say "I just like painting what I feel like painting. It's like accessing the subconscious/unconscious world. Sometimes I don't understand a painting until years later." Like this one.

Acrylic on hardboard, currently covering the breaker-box by the kitchen stove.

I did this oh...1999? Right after travelling to England, where I met a woman named Trish who had just been diagnosed with breast cancer. I did this as a "healing painting" to help her change and transform (spiderweb/butterfly...) and overcome her illness. Waaay back then, I didn't have technology, so I took a photograph and mailed it to her in the post. (She did recover, and got married.)

Later, I changed the face in the painting (it had been a portrait) to a more stylized "everywoman" face. Later still, I wondered why the windows are so dark, both the house and fence are so monochromatic, the pickets almost look like bars, and the colourful garden is outside the fence.

If I were to analyze it now, with the clarity of years, I'd say "the little house with the picket fence" represented a restrictive life/body/mindset that needed shaking up. The woman is actually pointing to a spider, hidden in the foliage, a classic agent of the creation/destruction process (continually weaving webs that are continually destroyed).

So the moral is, don't squish spiders.

And Yay for International Women's Day. Gratitude for living in a place where we have freedom to be, evolve, express, create, transform etc. etc. and just be ourselves. And cheers to men, who also have to evolve, express, create and transform themselves. We are all in this together, becoming more human in the best sense.

More Random Art-ifacts of an Off-Season Painter

2011-03-02T14:03:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to my studio, also known as the "window nook." Considerably more comfortable, if less roomy, than the Palm Nut Studio (which started this whole blogging habit).

I'd say I'm generally a conflicted artist/painter: I have a life-long desire to work/play with colour and form and paint and tangible materials, coupled with a basic inability to be indoors on a nice day (thus, the gardening habit). For instance, right now, the sun has come out and I have every intention of riding my bike through the remaining snow banks so I can go get more...paint (or anything).

Desertsong

However, when I do sit down and paint, it can be so thrilling...to find forms and effects that almost seem to happen like magic, or even to be there already...

Can you see the face?

Like so...

...and so...

Muse-ic

It's also a luxury at this time of year to have the time to follow trains of thought and inspiration--I even took a "Brush-Stroke Bootcamp" course at Emily Carr (art school), which was my first bona fide painting class ever! What a revelation. In the first class, I discovered at least 10 bad habits I'd developed working on my own, and about 10 tips for methods/techniques/materials that would make my painting "flow" a little easier.

So even though I still love the works I did (like the one below) in the past, I have aspirations to work faster, in a series, playing more with colour and paint.

(Havana Yemaya, below, is a composite painting from photos taken when my choir travelled to Cuba in 2005)

So here's a new trail of paint to follow...inspired by this Bird'snest stone...

Colour studies for large works on canvas, comin' up!

Wish me luck!

Snow-Gardening

2011-02-27T21:52:00.000-08:00

Hey, it's too early for daffodils and too late for Christmas lights. What can you do to fill the seasonal gap in your home landscape?

How about some ephemeral but uplifting Snow-Gardening? Sure, it will be gone tomorrow (this is Vancouver after all) but in the meantime, let our on-call staff of professional and discrete snow-gardeners transform your winterscape.

Seize the Snow-Day! Call us 12 hours ago. (Too late for 2011, but keep us in mind for next year!!)

Products include:

Candle-lit Snowball Igloos (small, medium, and large).

Floral-Themed Snowmen or Snowladies*.

*Snowladies cost extra.

[We emphasize the ephemeral nature of our products. Our "Rosie" prototype (pictured above with discrete Snow-Gardening staff) did a face-plant approx. 5 hours later due to a sudden warming trend. This in no way reflects her structural integrity, or lack thereof.]

Giant Squid Sinks Ship

2011-02-26T14:44:00.000-08:00

This was the remaining stone from round one of my Painting Rocks revival (a couple posts ago). Initially, I chalked in the forms of a woman carrying a basket full of fruit/flowers on her head, with one arm holding up the basket and the other arm outstretched (below).

It could have worked, but didn't feel quite right, so I flipped the stone over and looked again.
Who knew a giant squid consuming a flagship was on the other side? Can't explain it.

Icicle-Gardening 2011

2011-02-26T14:14:00.001-08:00

Glace-ial stone...

It's a bit of a novelty when the temperature drops below freezing around here, and we experience things like ice and snow. I personally keep an eye out for impromptu ice-sculptures, for which I can take no credit. Here are some more surprising and magical formations found while rock-hopping in Lynn Creek...

Bellflowers...

Ice-trumpets...

Glace-ial stone, again, on a different setting (how cool is that?!)...

Hardy Signs of Life

2011-02-26T12:35:00.000-08:00

We're getting our cold snap now, so I've only been venturing out in the sunny gaps between snow/hail showers to prune/see "what's up" in garden land. Snowdrops are up. So are the little reticulata irises at Roswitha's...

I wonder how they've fared the last couple nights. Even the hellebores in my garden are rethinking their early start...

So were Andy and Jono (intrepid arborist and right-hand man), who started recurving this laurel hedge one frosty day, while I prepped, protected, and stuck up for the perennial beds below.

Andy's actually great (which is why I recommend him to help in my gardens whoo!), and brought a wide ramp that he braced between two ladders so that cuttings/boots didn't crush the garden beds. He says "the older I get, the more tools I need" and I say I wish everyone brought the right gear to prevent damage to plants. I agree though, that a person can spend years in gardening, performing feats of strength and endurance out of sheer joie de vivre, and not really have to consider body-and-plant-saving systems until the big 4-0, or so.

While I have them in the shot, ye olde apple trees have produced a lot of new growth since their restorative pruning last year. Jim & Ro have an old friend/sculptor who comes in from the Gulf Islands to prune these trees (I imagine a woman in rustic robes, with long wavy hair threaded with grey and perhaps a sickle) and who, last year, performed quite a drastic reduction, removing several large old branches. So last summer resulted in a lot of vegetative growth, and perhaps this year we'll see more flower buds and a better crop yield by next year. Learnin' from experience...

Self-Propelled: The Next Generation

2011-02-20T22:43:00.000-08:00

Another random sighting--this time in Coal Harbour, where Transformers come out for a jog on a Sunday afternoon.

2011 Hobbit Houses

2011-02-20T21:30:00.000-08:00

I took these pics shortly after wiping out on ice (in slow motion, a la bicyclette) and landing in goose poo in Stanley Park today. It was worth it. I looked up...and saw these.

Updated from 2010 models, these are possibly the most statuesque Hobbit Houses I've seen yet. They probably have a real name--something quaint and British like "twiggeries"--but I either call them "wigwams" (neither quaint nor British) or Hobbit Houses, for reasons obvious to me. These particular houses will support large patches of tall Phlox.

This post is mainly for my own How-To benefit, for future reference. In fact, if I kept pics like this under wraps, I could probably take credit for inventing Hobbit Houses. Whenever I build them in clients' gardens, they think I'm absolutely brilliant because they've never noticed them before.

Case in point: notice the random gentleman, below, oblivious to the presence of Hobbit Houses.

FMI (For My Information): the gardeners here used entire saplings (retaining side branches instead of stripping the main trunks into poles); they bend opposing saplings into archways to form the main structure, then interwine the side branches as well, for bracing. Nice work. And you thought putting up a tent was hard.

February Valentine Bouquet-in-a-Bowl

2011-02-12T13:05:00.000-08:00

Really, if you had to go out into your garden (or someone else's) and pick something for your sweetie (or yourself) at this time of year, you could come back in with a scented bouquet of Sarcacocca and Helleborus, also known as Himalayan Sweetbox and Lenten-Rose that rivals the more traditional/blah bouquet we have been brainwashed to expect. This bouquet is best displayed in a bowl, because most Hellebores are noddy and look down, so you have to snap off the head and float it face-up, like so...

Notwithstanding the fact that presenting a bouquet of Helleborus and the staccato-sounding Sarcacocca sounds more like you are pronouncing a curse rather than declaring your devotion, the overall effect is pleasing, and merely an issue of marketing. Simply present the bowl, like an offering, while describing the contents as "Himalayan Sweetbox and Lenten-Roses", intoning something to the effect that you'd be willing to "give up" (get it? "Lenten") anything to be with so-and-so. I should mention that Sarcacocca smells like jasmine--that is the scent lingering in the air these days, usually in shady plantings near entrances of buildings. Even if you are not performing the above recommended ritual, bring a bouquet inside. It will fill a room with scent.

So here's a somewhat surprise-guest, taking the place of my afore-mentioned Amaryllis in my window. Yes, my African white lily is blooming again, on Valentines, two years after leaving Ghana (snooooo-ork). That's me, blowing my nose (because I have a cold, not because I'm having a romantic relapse). Buut, the point being: flowers hold very strong emotional memories, and I see no reason why red roses should monopolize the love-market. If your sweetie picked a spontaneous handful of Scabiosa or Farfugium or dandy-lions the first time, that's how it is. That's all I'm sayin.

One Love (makes the world go 'round)

Mutant Ninja Squirrels

2011-02-11T11:16:00.000-08:00

What's with the squirrels this year?!

Here's a new take on "While the cat's away, the mice will play"...

Between my sporadic winter visits, the resident/hoodlum squirrels are trashing Roswitha's flower benches: the driplines usually sit on the surface of the soil, but are being seriously undermined here! The rodents in question are (allegedly) tunnelling after the purple tulips that have naturalized in the benches, between the roses/azaleas etc. They have never done this before, usually restricting themselves to newly-planted bulbs (which I habitually protect with chicken wire).

This is where I planted those fabulous Fritillaria bulbs last fall--I put the metal screens down more as a mild deterrent, because squirrels don't even like fritillarias (which smell skunky). I merely suspected that squirrels would be curious enough to dig into freshly-dug soil, in hopes that I'd hidden something tasty. As it was, these little cretins dug in from the sides of the screens and tunnelled around underneath, looking for the long-established purple tulips (of which I found bits and pieces) but did not dig deep enough to disturb the fritillarias.

Why are the squirrels so short on food this year that they're going for "reserve" supplies? (The fact that squirrels have a backup plan and remember tulip stocks they've ignored for years is a little bit impressive.) My theory is that the past two winters haven't really been cold enough to force the little b*ggers into semi-hibernation, so they're still hopping around with high-season appetites, and not enough food to sustain them. They've also been after all the crocus--established and newly planted.

So what to do?

Start restricting tulips and crocus to containers/pots that are easy to protect with a "lid" of chicken wire? I may be suggesting this in the future!
We may have to plant early-flowering bulbs/corms that squirrels don't like in places that are too labour-intensive to cover with chicken wire. There are still lots to choose from: Narcissus (daffodils), Hyacinths, Grape Hyacinths, Dutch Iris, Fritillarias, Alliums, Anemones, Snowdrops...and those bloody invasive English bluebells. Why don't squirrels dig after them? Bluebell bulbs look white and crunchy and delicious. Maybe it's just marketing.
Another thought--what if we bought *cheap* peanuts-in-the-shell and "planted" them for the squirrels, in hopes that our flower bulbs would be spared?
Start eating squirrels (See The Joy of Cooking).

Oh, can't wait 'til spring...

Painting Rocks

2011-02-05T12:41:00.000-08:00

This is a painted rock.

Two friends have milestone birthdays this weekend: Liz is turning forty, and Anne is eighty! Seemed a good time to resurrect my long-lost art of stone-painting. When I first moved to North Van (almost 15 years ago!), I spent a bohemian winter (read: semi-starvation) painting and wandering the riverside trails of Lynn Valley. Among other survival tactics, I painted river-rocks and sold them at the Vancouver Art Gallery gift shop.

Here's the 30-foot pool (below):

Ooo. Pretty rocks. So here's the process:

Go for hike in valley. Wear good boots for skidding down the short-cut bank instead of following touristy trails. Wear a backpack. Scramble along shoreline for 300m or so, scouring shallows for pretty rocks.

Pick rocks with interesting bumps and colours, relatively smooth, of reasonable size. Avoid granite, which is too pixel-y. Set them on high boulders to pick up on your way back. Make sure the rocks will stand firmly on a flat surface, with the most interesting face exposed. You'll need more than you think you need.

Hike out with your backpack full of small boulders. Consider the merits of painting something lighter, like bark.

At home, scrub rocks to remove any sliminess. Let dry, then paint with Polymer Medium (Gloss), a glaze you can find in art supply stores. This will bring up the mineral colours, though not as bright as fresh-from-the-river colours.

Then, as time permits, stare at rocks every which way (possibly for hours--this is a non-lucrative art form). Wait for rocks to "speak to you." Maintain total faith that you will see something. When it happens, it's uncanny how the existing shapes and crevices "fall into place." That's the thrilling part. Don't give up.

Sketch in forms with chalk. Paint them. Ideally, I try to let the natural colours/shapes of the stone define the form as much as possible, and bring it together with as little paint as possible. Pretty zen.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After (again):

Sometimes I glaze over the whole stone again, after painting, but this time I just glazed certain elements, like the moon/leaves/waterfall for special effect. I also glued pieces of flattened recycled bicycle tubes to the bottoms so the rocks can sit on surfaces without scratching/sliding.

Winter Sanity-Savers...

2011-01-31T14:08:00.000-08:00

After an extended delay, my Amaryllis has arrived (seen here, singin' show-tunes in my window). I like its (her) sense of timing after all; she's doing a fine job of chasing away the End-of-January Bleak-Monster.

That bouquet of flowering-currant twigs I mentioned in the last post is also flushing into bloom...with just a flush of pink. Not quite the rose-pink I was hoping for, but I am nevertheless impressed. The buds were fairly tight when I salvaged the branches, yet they produced a full drop-down blossom just sitting in a vase of water for 12 days. That's a lot of stored energy. There is absolutely no innuendo intended in the above paragraph.
.
I have decided to amuse myself this year by experimenting with the "cut-flower-bouquet"-potential of whatever flower/branch/stalk/stem-bits I happen to haul home. The first test for prospective florals, of course, will be surviving wind-force on the back of a scooter. So I'm not promising fine florals. A bit more rustic perhaps.
.
Bouquets sure do liven up a space. I suppose people have known that for years. Late bloomer here, ha ah.
.
In the meantime, my keen observation skills and quick camera reflexes captured this image for BGC readers... (compliments of recent West Coast fusion curry/crab/sushi feast at Chiaki and Geoff's!)

I think the Red Racer Pale Ale logo is awesome, if unlikely. Reminds me of the B:C:Clettes--the Vancouver-based all-girl bicycle-show-dancing revue. Definitely worth a Google.

Winter Twiggery

2011-01-21T21:24:00.000-08:00

Here's a Burning Bush/"Winged" Euonymous alatus in winter, so you can see the flat corky "wings" on the branches, which apparently look divine holding new snow. Besides this aesthetic function, I have no idea why this bush evolved to have what I think look more like fins. Finned Euonymous.

Now's the time to keep an eye out for flower buds forming on early-spring-blooming shrubbery, and to whip out your pruners to snip a few branches to "force" indoors. Room temperature will fool their little buds into action and you'll get a spring advance. Most Forsythia, Prunus blireiana (the February-blooming plum with pink flowers before dark bronze leaves), and Chaenomeles (flowering quince), are generally of scrambly habit and won't miss a branch or five.

Below, I have a bundle of the flowering currant, Ribes sanguineum, on my desk because I was winter-pruning an overgrown schmozzle of shrubberies and had to give it a chop. I may be delusional, thinking I'll get a batch of those early carmine-pink blossoms, because this is a tad early. I can hope though. I'll know shortly.

In the meantime, I used a few Ribes switches to prop up my extremely reluctant Christmas Amaryllis bulb. At this rate, it will be a Valentines Amaryllis. I totally planned that :]

There is some colour out there and this Witchhazel cultivar, Hamamelis 'Jelena', down in the parking lot by the Beans at Park & Tilford, looks fluorescently spectacular in this photo, but people don't generally like it as well as the traditional yellow Witchhazel.

However, the yellow Witchazel (below) in the neighbouring P&T Gardens looks a soggy mess with its tenacious dead leaves so 'Jelena' is my pick of the day. I do appreciate the lacework branches of the hawthorne behind though. For all the grey of winter, 'tis the season of silhouettes and subtleties.

Here's a poem by Macrina Wiederkehr to remind us there's a season for everything....

The Sacrament of Waiting

Slowly

She celebrated the sacrament of letting go

First she surrendered her green

then the orange, yellow and red

Finally she let go of her brown

shedding her last leaf

she stood empty and silent, stripped bare.

leaning against the winter sky she began her vigil of trust.

Shedding her last leaf

she watches its journey to the ground

She stood in silence

wearing the colour of emptiness,

her branches wondering

How do you give shade with so much gone?

And then,

the sacrament of waiting began.

The sunrise and sunset watched with tenderness.

Clothing her with silhouettes,

they kept her hope alive.

They helped her understand that

her vulnerability

her dependence and need

her emptiness

her readiness to receive

were giving her a new kind of beauty.

Plant ID-ing my food

2011-01-14T19:05:00.000-08:00

I know. Super nerdy. But what's an off-season gardener to do??

Everything on the cutting board there belongs to the plant family Apiaceae, which is the same family as our dearly beloved carrot. The reason I care, or know, or either/both, is because I have become recently acquainted with celery root/celeriac (the brown knobby-looking thing, and the white peeled-looking thing) due to a recent foray into Indian vegetarian cooking.

Indian vegetarian cooking requires more celery root than I've ever required in my life (that would be "none") so I'm happy to discover celeriac is just a variety of celery with a knobby edible root, commonly available in the produce section of most grocery stores. Who knew. So far, I've stir-fried it in curry and am about to pound it into koftas in curry.

I do love curry, which is why I've also become acquainted with coriander--the two spice bottles (seeds and ground seeds) on the right and the green bundle of cilantro, a sneaky Spanish name for coriander leaves--all the same plant.

And the last Apiaceae items on the cutting board are the white Florence fennel stalk next to a bottle of fennel seeds--both a lovely refreshing licorice flavour and by fluke, in my current food collection and related (like cousins) to knobby old celeriac. They all have edible roots (even coriander), highly fragrant leaves (even carrots), and tall umbrella-like flowers that produce flavourful seeds (even celery).

This was brought to you by the Super Nerdy Horticulinary Network. You know you love it.

Prayer Flag(ging) the Raspberry Canes

2011-01-04T18:29:00.000-08:00

Had a lovely white Christmas up in the Shuswap--here's a neighbour's raspberry patch, looking decorous against the snow. Not sure if all that flagging tape is a visual aid for party-crashing deer, or if it's just what he had on hand to tie in the canes... (This concludes the mandatory botanical content in this posting.)

Spent much time tramping back and forth through the snow en route to various cozy kitchens/wood stoves/good company, and skiing at Larch Hills and Sun Peaks (below) with the extended family...

Also learned how to ice skate with a hockey stick, make curry and mix White Russians. Happy New Year. My topmost resolution is not to pay any(more) library fines this year. The rest of the list is personal, so there blogo-wiki-leaky-sphere. Bless. One love and prosper.

Happy Solstice!

2010-12-22T23:40:00.000-08:00

Welcoming back the light at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden, a venue for the Winter Solstice Lantern Festival last night. I was too busy being a donation fairy to get pictures of all the luminously lovely lanterns floating in the night air--particularly the water lily lanterns trailing across the pond! But I did get one of Joey Mallet's heron...

Farewell to the fading year, and welcome to the new! Time to take a gardener's holiday. Peacen' love everyone. What a beautiful city we live in.

Holiday Door Decoration...

2010-12-15T20:32:00.000-08:00

Here's this year's Yule Ball at Roswitha's--I explain how to make these in the Dec. 8th/2009 post.

This year, we have some lovely Magnolia grandiflora foliage in the mix (the leaves with the brown fuzzy undersides). You can buy these in pricey bunches--occasionally--at the same places you purchase holiday greenery, but I salvaged from the choppity-job that surveyor did in the lower garden.

(I have a post about that a couple posts ago. The survey company turned out to be very apologetic for the shoddy work of one of their employees, and paid for a replacement tree.)

There are also redtwig dogwood branches (at the top), red skimmia berries, blowdown fir, dry hydrangea blossoms, and whirly holly branches coming out the bottom. Whatever I could find!

As a side note: I also used a bunch of Laurel Daphne/Spurge Daphne/Daphne laureola as filler on the backside, and it has held up really well (I made the Yule Ball two weeks ago and this pic is from today.) Daphne laureola actually has "noxious weed" status in Washington, but people here think it's pretty... So I encourage everyone to go out in the woods and pick it for your holiday arrangements! Weed while you decorate :)

How to hide a stump...

2010-12-08T23:12:00.001-08:00

Here's a strategic Willow Wigwam--built over a fresh stump which you can see is scored to increase water penetration, helping it rot out faster. I piled extra soil around the stump and planted a ring of salvaged tall red Crocosmia 'Lucifer' corms (although you could use any tall shallow-rooted perennial) so the vision is: massive clump of crocosmia emerges in spring, growing up through supporting willow wigwam, completely obscuring unsightly stump.

I generally build these wigwams/hobbit houses over perennials that have a tendency to grow tall and flop over, like some shasta daisies, asters, tall perennial geraniums, and the like. You should do it in early spring (or winter, when you cut down frostbitten perennials) so that the new growth will grow up through the wigwam naturally. This looks so nice--compared to staking after the fact--and a wigwam also tends to last a long time, because sucker-type branches easily root so you'll have a little living wigwam-shaped bush if you don't discourage it a bit.

The biggest challenge is finding long straight bendy sticks when you need them. I've also used the branches of forsythia, redtwig dogwood, wild hazelnut...most trees that sucker freely make good hobbit houses, and willow is, of course, the best. Traditionally (in basket-weaving cultures), willow trees were regularly "pollarded" or drastically pruned back to a tallish stump every year or two, to encourage the massive production of whip-like suckers. In fact, local municipal gardeners regularly do this to several golden yellow willows in Grand Boulevard park, yielding massive quantities of willow switches. When the gardeners prune them in the spring, they tend to leave the piles of branches lying around for a couple days because those "in the know" covet them for a myriad of purposes.

An aside: yes, this photo was taken today, in the fifteen-minute interval during which the sky was not bucketing rain. It's not cold though, so I'm not quite as whiny as in the previous post. Just feeling like a confused bear, blundering in and out of hibernation!!

Survivor Gardener...

2010-12-04T19:14:00.000-08:00

This was Friday--sunny day--after a week of miserable rain (working) after a week of snow (not working). It's called Survivor Gardener.

I'm reaching my limits of scooting in wintry weather--can't keep hands that warm at 0-4 degrees C, even with those hotshot hand-warmers most people use for skiing. Can't completely close the visor on my helmet or my eyeglasses fog up, so I pretend I'm ski-dooing and go for the windburn. I've brought my bicycle back out a couple days (no problem staying warm!) but these past few days I've been in the far reaches of West Van so scooting it is...

What do gardeners do this time of year anyways? (Inquiring minds want to know.) Final clean-ups, for one thing, after that crazy early snow shocked everything into winter's deathgrip. Odd year, really--we hardly had winter last year (remember the No-Snow Olympics...), so the season here was extended beyond the usual cycle.

That explains why we saw events like this...

Lilies coming into bud in November. Wha--?

A lot of vegetation was blithely growing on, as if it forgot "Fall" means "drop yer leaves and show us yer sticks." As a result, lots of trees and bushes are still hanging with sodden leaves, frozen and thawed in place like little drippy hankies. Nice. I guess the petioles never got the signal to "let go." Also, a lot of evergreen leaves are severely blackened with freezer-burn from the snow sitting on them--this doesn't usually happen to this extent, so I figure it's due to their not having a chance to "harden off" before the icy deluge. Anyhow, I think the damage is mainly cosmetic, and new leaves next spring should remedy those banks of black Bergenia etc.

Other than clean-ups, the last bulb plantings, and some projects "put off" for the leaner months, I'm continuing with the garden below...(picture taken in October)...

This (above) is a before-ish shot of Daphne's woodland garden, which we are re-defining after driving back the brambles and unruly masses of feral plums. Discerning eyes can see a semi-circle of lawn emerging through the bare branches below (yesterday's pic), and a mixed border appearing along the crescent edge. (Very discerning eyes. This may be one of my "gotta be there" photos.)

Anyways, this involved the purchase and planting of several woodlandish trees and shrubs (Vine Maple, Kousa Dogwood, Strawberry Tree/Arbutus unedo, Burning Bush/Euonymous alata), moving a couple of existing Rhododendrons, and tracking down a 'Pink Pagoda' Mountain Ash to plant next spring. Also a good bit of old-fashioned hewing and hauling of wood, land-clearing and pathway-defining (which Daphne's son John helped me with, thank god--or, thank John).

There's also a good deal of winter pruning and further path-clearing and such to do elsewhere on the property, so this is a nice "resurrection" project that can give a cabin-feverish gardener a excuse to get outside when weather permits. This kind of project reminds me of my childhood, so I'll have to suppress the urge to light a bonfire in a brushpile in January and roast hotdogs. Don't think that's legal in West Van.

In the meantime, this kind of frost holds on until late morning on clear days (from this morning at Sheena & Terry's). Hibernation may not be so bad after all...brrrr

Life goes on, here and there...

2010-11-30T22:24:00.000-08:00

Approaching another winter here in oh Canada--but no, I won't be going to Ghana. Last time was Jan-March 2009. 2010 has been a hard year for the Ghana family, but you'd never guess it by these pics :)

Above, Jerry (tooting) and Ayi (water-bagging) for the camera--these brothers lost their dad (Easy's brother) in the summer and are now on the "Papa Easy" circuit: he checks in with them regularly. There are now six kids under Easy's care: two more half-brothers, plus his own daughter Anita and her almost-two-year-old son. A, uh, staggering change from one daughter when I first met him four years ago!

Most people know by now that I've let reality sink in: I can't live in Ghana, and Easy can't come here. I'm not sure that either one of us would have survived a transplant, due to rending roots and responsibilities. Some people still ask if I'm going back every year, so I'm mentioning it here (no) to catch a few more ears.

I'd rather help Easy do what Easy does best--be the ghetto version of a social-worker/guidance counsellor for unruly youth, and surrogate dad for a flock of kids on his own turf--and resume my own life with renewed gratitude. Go for it, call it what it is, and kiss the ground.

Now there are six kids to keep on tootin'. Some of my clients have offered to help when needed, and the offer alone lifts a heavy load for Easy Man. (If you haven't guessed already, Ghanaians tend to have ironic nicknames.)

So the music plays on...(Easy with the flute). Bless. We shall be in touch.

...and I have a quote about HOPE from Vaclav Havel, former president of the former Czechoslovakia:

Either we have hope within us or we don't; it is a dimension of the soul, and it's not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation...

Hope...is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but, rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more unpropitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper that hope is. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out.

Still Time!!!

With time

We shall overcome.
Still Time!!!!

Time will push us through.

Amen.

Gardening weather report

2010-11-23T18:29:00.000-08:00

Still

Ginkgo biloba--Fall Colour

2010-11-21T22:13:00.000-08:00

[Interlude while waiting for snow to melt]

What do we know about the Ginkgo...the species is as ancient as the dinosaurs; it's one of the few conifers that drops its foliage in the winter (larch is another); its "leaves" are actually fused "needles" (you can see the fine ridges on the surfaces below); it's very durable and tolerant of different conditions; it's yellow as a yellow rose at leaf fall...

First Snow

2010-11-20T15:57:00.000-08:00

No worries, gardeners-who-haven't-finished-your-bulbs-yet...It should melt by Monday...

This very fat little squirrel was out for a morning mooch. If squirrels are this fat, we may be in for a long winter. I myself have had an early start on the Egg Nog.

Everything is beautiful after the first snow. Then it's just wet and soggy.

Surveyor Trashes Magnolia...

2010-11-11T19:59:00.001-08:00

Why, you might ask, is this surveyor's stake nailed (ah-hem: "staked") to the fence?

Here's the evidence:

Exhibit A: Kicked-in bottom gate.

Exhibit B: Trashed Magnolia grandiflora (valuable tree) with new surveyor's stake (with orange flagging tape) in background.

Exhibit C: Surveyor's stake, with sight-line shearing off magnolia:

What would you do?

I am so tired of people "just doing their job" and trashing gardens, as if plants we've trained for years--and our efforts--are completely irrelevant. The owner wasn't home, no permission was granted...we'll see if this was a sneaky developer/vandal/just a totally inexcusable execution of a job.

(I'm branching out into Mr. Bean-style home security)

Alvaro's Velo-Mobile!

2010-11-07T21:21:00.000-08:00

How cool is this?!

That's me, in Alvaro Britos' home-made covered electric tricycle...

This is the sort of thing you randomly run across whilst cycling through Commercial Drive on a fine Sunday. Alvaro and his buddy were out road-testing his invention and could I just ride by? No.

This tricycle-pod skims along silently at 50 km/hr (my average scooter-speed) and features a super lightweight removable cover. I've seen similar pedal-pods, but always with fixed covers that look like fibre-glass. So keep an eye out on Dragon's Den (that sponsor-a-new-business show). Maybe Alvaro will be on it, after he adds some racing stripes. His email is alvaro3641@gmail.com. Imagine what our streets will look like in another ten years...

"Replace a Shady Lawn" Garden--in Autumn

2010-11-07T20:03:00.000-08:00

If this was still a lawn, I'd have to rake away all these glorious red leaves...
But since we converted it into a shade garden, I sweep the pathways, and use the leaves to mulch the garden beds. Voila:

The plantings are mainly low-growing perennials and groundcovers, to keep the wide-open feel of a lawn, and the main focus on the maple tree.

Here's a pseudo-comprehensive list of the plants:

Carex 'Ice Dance'--the dominant swath of variegated grass, also pictured below:
(My apologies--my current fascination with Vortex Photography is somewhat sabotaging the otherwise scientific ID photos on this blog.)

Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost'--the white-leafed/blue-flower-in-spring perennial also pictured below:

My favourite non-native fern, Polystichum polyblepharum/Japanese Tassel Fern, because it's evergreen, smaller than the native Sword Fern, with a glossier, darker green leaf...

(Okay, this one is unrecognizable. Anyways, art and science do meet somewhere in the garden.)

I also used Dryopteris erythosora/Autumn Fern, the one with the unexpected and lovely coppery-orange new growth (no Vortex close-up available at this time).

Here's a somewhat fuzzy shot of the Fuchsia magellanica 'Ricartonii' with a white Hydrangea and Sarcacocca ruscifolia/the tall-growing Himalayan Sweetbox in the background.

I also used various blue and variegated Hostas, Pachysandra, Galium/Sweet woodruff, Hellebores, Astrantia/Masterwort, Campanula poscharskyana, Euphorbia robbiae. Just in case someone's looking for shady-garden ideas.

Oh--I've just found a photo from earlier this fall...you can see the plants better sans the blanket of red leaves. Remember, this is a very shady garden--the only direct sun falls on the hydrangea and fuchsias in the upper left corner.

Little Blue Pill Bug

2010-11-04T22:47:00.000-07:00

Has anyone ever see a blue pill bug before?? First time for me. Bev kept finding them around her big ash street-tree today. I took one picture on her garden table before my battery died.

Autumn lights

2010-11-02T23:48:00.000-07:00

A week of fabulous fall colour, and I've been remiss recording it with my camera! These last few evenings, the dying light (around 6:00) has filled the sky with a luminous glow that pops the autumn colours like a technicolour scene from The Wizard of Oz. And I've been too busy scrabbling the last few bulbs into the soil like a frenzied squirrel to run for the camera. So here's a couple trippy spinning shots on the way home--in the dark.

Proof.

2010-11-02T23:26:00.000-07:00

Do you believe? Love it.

Even on Halloween, I'm working...

This bush kept running away and jumping at people. A very odd species: difficult to control. I generally choose plants that are more...rooted. If you are new or prospective client, seeking assurance of my reliability and professionalism, I really have no idea who that white-haired lady is.

Crown Imperial...

2010-11-02T23:13:00.000-07:00

I've never planted Crown Imperials/Fritillaria imperialis before: tall and decadent (apparently) and a common sight if you were hanging around the imperial court of Austria around the 18th Century (I think I made that up, but it might be true). So there will be a toast of Crown Royale on the pool deck at Roswitha's when the Crown Imperials bloom next...late spring (it says on the package).
Note: I did plant these sideways (bulbs always find their way up, even if they are upside down) because they are strangely bowl-like, and I wonder if a soggy Vancouver winter of rain would rot them out. So, I figure tipping them sideways is a safeguard.

Pink Pagoda...

2010-11-02T22:55:00.000-07:00

Nice tree--took these pics about a month ago at Van Dusen Gardens. Have been trying to track a Pink Pagoda down for Daphne's woodland garden, to no avail. Possibly available in the spring. Except for the large construction crane (small detail) the bottom photo is almost idyllic. Love Mountain Ash in general--so do birds--but the pinks are not in common use. Wonder why. Nice tree.

Rays of Light

2010-10-13T20:46:00.000-07:00

Which one of the following pics doesn't belong...?

Ray of sunshine on late autumn dahlias and Penstemon barbatus in Sue and Hugh's garden...

Ray of sunshine on Aster frikartii 'Monch' and Chinese lanterns (Physalis alkekengi) and Sedum spectabile 'Autumn Joy' in Anne and Peter's garden...

Ray of sunshine on Salish Sea from Jim and Wren's garden...

Ray of sunshine on a lavish border of Autumn Crocus (Colchicum) at Sue and Hugh's...

(I had to work in the freighter shot somehow. Very cool. A reminder to look up (way up) ever once in a while, whilst gardening!)

Only the Lonely (Nicotiana sylvestris)

2010-10-03T09:45:00.000-07:00

No, this isn't a singles ad for tall, lanky, late-blooming, possibly socially-awkward annuals.

Just recording the bloom of Nicotiana 'Only the Lonely' for future reference.

Above: a broom, for scale. Below, me, for scale. Very pleased with these--we finally found something white n' showy for this section of the pool deck that is too shady for the white roses growing everywhere else.

Spidey Senses

2010-09-29T22:20:00.000-07:00

September is Spider Month.

If anyone sees me out in the garden, apparently playing with an invisible marionette, I'm just trying to relocate a swinging spidey whose handiwork I just walked through. Feel bad about that.

I wonder if they start building a new one right away, or if they just take the day off, head down to the pub, make a claim at the Web-Compensation Board. Something like that.

Speaking of spidey senses, I think I'm losing mine--I mean, the ones required to ride a bicycle in traffic. All this scootering has eroded my cycling Spidey Senses. I assume I'm honing my scootering Spidey Senses, which is a good thing, but when I went on a long bicycle-ride last weekend, I got honked at twice. Both times, I was following the trajectory of a bicycle-lane that suddenly ended and I failed to vaporize at the same time. Before the Scooter (BS) I guess I never felt entitled to space on the road and obligingly vaporized, because I rarely got honked at.

I am therefore mystified by the behaviour of traffic on Marine Drive in West Van. How many times have I seen spandex-clad road-racing cyclists obliviously holding up a long line of cars as they spin around the winding one-lane coastline. I actually don't think those cyclists are oblivious--they just feel entitled to the road, even though common courtesy would beg they pull over for the parade behind them. Even more surprising, no one honks. I suspect the drivers are afraid the cyclist might be their boss, or someone they don't want to offend.

I guess I don't look like a high-powered cyclist, since the closest thing to spandex I wear is socks (they're tight, and sometimes have a small logo). I am therefore honk-at-able. But now I know what it feels like to Take the Lane. Oh, the power. I have tasted it. Who needs Spidey Senses when you can lead the parade...

Opposites Attract??

2010-09-26T22:37:00.000-07:00

This is actually an old pic I just found in my archives.

Is this a case of His and Hers? A case of 1 Hummer + 1 Smart Car is equivalent to 2 Normal Family Vehicles?

I thought that if a Smart Car and a Hummer parked in the same driveway, they would trigger some law of physics that automatically converts them both into anti-matter.

They are so totally pretending not to know one another.

Parking for Self-Propelled People

2010-09-19T11:37:00.000-07:00

Need a stick? Take a stick. Have a stick? Leave a stick.

Dog contemplates higher forms of transportation

2010-09-19T11:30:00.000-07:00

Good boy, Luke.

Sockeye Salmon Run

2010-09-16T22:14:00.000-07:00

Saw a bit of spawning action in the creeks around Adams River (in the Shuswap, an hour past Kamloops) this past weekend--the Big Run hasn't started yet, but will be rolling in the first week of October. (I include Salmon Reports in this blog because of their clear correlation with Life Cycles.)

We walked up Bear Creek and I caught a live-action fish-fight between two males: one defending his territory with a female already digging her nest.

As if ten thousand (?) gill-netters, and five hundred miles of rapids wasn't enough, how about a little sabotage by members of your own species to round things off? Reproduction is a tough gig.

Scotch Creek (below) was awash with dead fish, likely because water level rose with the previous night's rain and dislodged the masses stuck along the banks. This run was almost over, with more carcasses floating downstream than live fish heading up.

The Adams River Run will be something to see for sure...neat how each creek population spawns sequentially. Stinky. Take your fish nose-plugs.

Crazy Beautiful

2010-09-05T21:34:00.000-07:00

Here is my lily bulb that finally decided to bloom. For two+ years, the amaryllis-like bulb threw out a few long lancy leaves and remained as such, winter and summer. Finally, this summer I placed its pot in a pan of water outside while I went away for a holiday. When I returned, I left it in the pan another week because it looked happy. When I retrieved it to put it back on my windowsill, I saw this new development...

There is something wonderful about a mysterious plant deciding to bloom. You feel as if it has finally decided to show up for your party. It has accepted your invitation.

The four buds continued to stretch skyward, one pair larger than the other. Then, I happened home one evening and discovered this...

After two+ years transplanted in its foreign home, the lily had the courtesy to choose the certain hour of day that I would be here to watch it unfold...

Have you ever heard a lily bud release the bond between petals and unfold? It is the sound of a silk egg ripping.

As soon as this happened, a scent filled the room; sweet, like a perfume called White Lily should be.

At this point, with the aid of a vintage black wool coat, my camera took me places I'd never been before. I am unabashedly in love with these photos...

Welcome to the Western World, Lily! Here it is in front of a painting I did about two+ years ago, inspired by the lily's origins. Hard to tell where Lily ends and imagination begins...

If Fish Rode Bikes...

2010-08-31T18:38:00.000-07:00

Feels like the whole world is eating salmon these days. Fisheries keeps upping the estimated numbers of Sockeye returning to the Fraser River: 34 million as of today.

I started this...tribute...shortly after attending a "Salmon are Sacred" event inspired by Alexandra Morton, who is leading the anti-fish farm industry movement off the B.C. coast. The concentration of medications/diseases/effluent from the farmed Atlantic salmon are hazardous to indigenous species and local ecosystems.

Even as we witness the boggling numbers of Sockeye returning this year, we have to remember how vulnerable they are. And how tough. And how cool.

I am going to make some T-shirts...email me if you want one.

Late summer glories

2010-08-28T20:49:00.000-07:00

Romneya coulteri in Rojeanne and Jim's garden.

My favourite round-about planting in the North Vancouver City--in a on-the-way-home shaft of late summer sunshine. Scoot n' shoot...

Hilling Dahlias

2010-08-28T19:30:00.000-07:00

Steve Whysall wrote about dahlias in yesterday's Vancouver Sun. He went out to Ferncliff Gardens on McTaggart Street in Mission, where they breed dahlias and peonies. There's a dahlia-growing tip from the owners/gardeners, David and Sheila Jack, that is so great I'm writing it word for word here so I remember it for next year:

David "hills" plants as they grow in spring, pulling up soil around young stems the same way vegetable gardeners hill potato plants.

"When they are only about 12-inches high, we draw soil around them and firm it up by foot," says David. "We do it again when they are a little taller to create a hill that is five or six inches tall. We find this gives them all the support they need. If it turns out to be a dry summer, the hilling also acts as a mulch and helps retain moisture."

Imagine that.

I'm starting to like dahlias, so long as they are interspersed with other plants. Like roses, I feel like mass plantings of dahlias are too much of a good thing. Leads to obsessiveness, petal-counting, Fall Fairs, etc. Nevertheless, a fine specimen throwing out pom-poms and cheerleading all the way into deep autumn is a welcome sight.

The purple dahlias in the photo above were rescued from a staking accident in Janis' garden (thus the revelation re: the no-stake method). If they hadn't done a face-plant, I could have taken a pic of their deep purple against a mauve backdrop of Joe-Pye Weed/ Eupatorium purpureum. It was nice. The dahlia below was in the Hollyhock Centre garden on Cortes Island, and the bit of yellow at the base of the petals really made it sing. Dahli-a-la-laaa.

Plants in Pots 2010

2010-08-22T10:11:00.000-07:00

Here's an installment for 2010 Plants in Pots: what I like this year, what always works, experiments, favourites, etc.

First of all, I've decided that begonias are the Supreme Beings of pot combos--there are so many lovely tuberous varieties coming out that fill out just so and are just so easy and you can store the tubers for the next year, when they come back bigger n' better. Below, this is your basic red tuberous begonia--but with a black leaf, which is rather random, and perfect for this black ceramic pot. It's combined with Red Baron grass (Imperata cylindrica 'Rubra') and Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummalaria 'Aurea') beside Rose's fish pond.

Below, there's a white and pink trailing begonia under the variegated foliage of a Hakuro-nishiki Willow (Salix integra 'Hakuro-nishiki') on Anne's deck. This trailing begonia is a particularly delicate, fluted variety that is similar to the bright coral 'Bonfire' begonia we liked last year. I'm not sure that these are tuberous begonias--you can pull up tuberous begonias at the end of the season and store the knobby tuber in peat moss in the garage/shed and plant out next year.

As for Hakuro-nishikis: they are so striking, with pink/white/green foliage that everyone wants them, but I have observed that they do better in the ground. Still nice in pots, but they tend to be fussy with inconsistent watering/confined roots and are constantly complaining; that is, randomly turning brown, so you tend to get white/pink/green/crispy brown variegation.

The red flowers in the other pot above are the standard annual Nicotiana--I haven't worked with them a lot because I seem to remember them being fussy, but they seem to like Anne's deck. I'm more mesmerized by the tall, fragrant, white variety called 'Only the Lonely' which came available again this year and I enthusiastically planted around various gardens...

(Me, looking enthusiastic--if not hyper--about this bench-full at Roswitha's, with white impatiens, about to bloom.) My verdict: very fun...if they make it. Their other name is Slug Salad, so any baby 'Only the Lonely's I planted in garden beds were chomped to the ground. The ones that survived were in containers/pots, where slugs had yet to launch expeditions. Below, a full-face view of this lush-looking Nicotiana crop on the elevated pool deck, with a backdrop of the forest garden.

Nicotiana, by the way, is the fancy name for tobacco--but this is of course the legal florist variety. The less legal varieties (I didn't know growing tobacco was illegal--but isn't that strange?? You think perhaps the corporate cigarette companies have something to do with that huh huh?) look something like this:

They look a little weedy, so I wouldn't recommend them for your flower gardens/pots. But they have other uses. (I'm not growing this, by the way. Don't recall where I took the picture.)

So onward: still referring to the pic on Anne's deck, another favourite for Plants in Pots 2010 is the common Hosta. Hostas are so effortless in pots (or anywhere) and again, are also safer from the Sluggish Hordes when planted up high. They provide little islands of lush greenish calm in pot combinations

One of my favourite combinations, in pots or in the ground, is hostas and hardy fuchsias. Below: a big blue Hosta sieboldiana with Fuchsia magellanica 'Riccartoni' in John and Margot's sitting area. They like the same conditions, and are both soooo hardy and will perform/bloom in shade (I mean the plants, not John and Margot, although some of that may indeed be true). I'm not a huge fan of annual fuchsias. I think because they are a little blowsy? Pink n' frilly? Brittle? Wedding cakish? Can't put my finger on it. I love the delicate yet hardy 'Ricarrtoni' though...

Canna lilies remain a pot-stunner: we left these canna rhizomes in their elevated cement planting beds at Rose's over the winter (a mild winter, yes) and they came back unscathed. Again, Red Baron grass is a showy companion, hiding some kind of mechanical box at the base of the cannas.

The cannas below were overwintered in Roswitha's furnace room, next to a big window. They nevertheless came out in spring, covered in bugs (aphids/spider mites etc.) so I chopped them down to the soil level, rinsed 'em hard, and let them re-emerge like so...

Echinacea--the white cone-flower above--also does well in pots, if you can wait for their from-now-on bloom. I like perennials in pots. Even though they don't pump out a season-long bloom like annuals, you can orchestrate the bloom-times so there is always something interesting going on. For example, the little hardy Gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides 'Kleims') in the smaller pot just finished its full and fragrant flush of bloom, just as the Echinacea took over. This also saves the cost of buying a shipload of annuals every year--at Roswitha's, we also save all our dahlia and begonia tubers and replant them. Further to the hardy gardenia, I do plant it in the ground and mulch it over the winter, because a pot is less protected and I don't want to tempt fate.

I've included the pic below of a Trumpet vine (Campsis radicans) in the Plants in Pots feature, because this specimen is being contained in a spot that is really too small for it...

It was planted in a cement bed about five feet below this ledge, and of course it wants to grow about 20 feet, or more. Last year, it started to be a problem and I (unimaginatively) just cut off the dense growth when it crept onto the patio above, sacrificing flowers. This year I (imaginatively) started rolling the shoots to the left and tying it to itself, somewhat like a fancy chignon hair-do...which looked funny until it continued to flush out and produced flowers.

Time for a swim. Actually, this photo is several weeks old. The summer is shifting, shifting, sadly. However, so many things are beautiful because they are fleeting. I'll try to get some more Plants in Pots 2010 pics before the season is through.

Epic Scoot

2010-08-11T20:42:00.000-07:00

Safely returned from my Epic Scoot up the Old Island Highway to Campbell River, Quadra Island, Cortes Island, Powell River and the Sunshine Coast!! About 600 km on about $15 of gas.

Here's my RV (tent under seat and rest in saddlebags) in Union Bay next to Sea-Change Studio (amazing artists). Felt a little giddy (a lot giddy) rollin' down the highway like I'd just escaped from the circus. Actually, I renamed The Scoot: Baggins, after Bilbo in The Hobbit. We definitely got out of the glen on this trip.

Many many ferry rides. I love ferries, also known as The Poor Man's Cruise. Even better, I got to roll on and off with the Harleys. There's something fantastic about gunning yer scooter engine up and down the ramps with a rumbling horde: first on, first off.

A calculatedly placid shot, below. Nevertheless, I notice a jetstream in the cloud-blown sky. That was from the ferry returning to Quadra from Cortes.

My hobbit friends, on Quadra. Anyone who moves to the Gulf Islands ends up looking like something from J.R. Tolkien, given time. (When I started looking like Golem, I knew it was time to leave.) Ryan and Jessica are blogging their gardening adventures at From the Living Soil and Eating the Coast respectively, both on Wordpress. They are starting a seed company, and market-gardening and tending farm animals in exchange for inhabiting their little red house...

I will travel 600 km to hug a kid this cute.

We went to Rebecca's Spit, where I contemplated a career making jewellry from dead crabs. You laugh...

We relaxed on the beach.

Here, there was a disagreement over the pronunciation of "flotsam."

I scooted onward, to Cortes, where I immediately ran into a family I'd met on a previous ferry. The little girl thought I was rad because I was a girl on a motorbike(ish). I thought she was rad because she had four braids in her hair. We went for a swim. I carried on to the Babbling Buddha hostel. Beautiful setting:

I arrived just in time to join a meditative dance in the carpeted and tapestried dojo, led by a British yogi/teacher. She was beautiful and intense. There was one other guest, a man, who also participated. There was a repetitive-dance part, a Sufi-spinning part, and a meditation part, splayed face-down on the floor. I was like, okay, this is cool.

There was also a hyper-active kitten on the premises. During the repetitive-dance part, the kitten repeatedly attacked the man's leg, sometimes launching full-out assaults from across the room. Remarkably, the man didn't miss a step or scream in pain. I was glad the kitten had developed single-prey focus.

During the Sufi-spinning part, I discovered immediately that spinning requires some skill. You have to concentrate on grounding yourself, and blur your vision or you will throw up. I was doing quite well, although I wished there weren't so many posts in the room.

During the splayed-out-on-the-floor meditation part, I fell asleep completely and woke myself up when I made one of those weird sleep-talking-noises. I had no idea where I was for a moment, but was reassured to hear the man making another weird sleep-talking noise elsewhere in the room. I decided that, for someone with a tendency to fall asleep while trying to meditate, lying face-down on the floor was not a recommended position.

Cortes is the centre of the Gulf Islands mystical universe. Here's my contribution, on the beach at Smelt Bay. It's a mandala. I don't know a lot about mandalas, but I like them. I've wanted to make one for about six months. It's my holiday, and it's time to make a mandala!!

Hollyhock retreat centre is largely responsible for Cortes' reputation. Here is the garden at Hollyhock, named after "the spirit of the 'Holy Mallow' known through the ages for its healing and spiritual qualities' (says the packet of Hollyhock seeds I bought there). The garden is beeeaauutiful:

Below, there are red dahlias in the foreground and bright red and dark red hollyhocks (I got seeds for those) in the back.

Below: crocosmia in front of a canna lily leaf...

Here's a something I don't know what it is. A poppy-like mallow. A mallow-like poppy?

I met so many nice people throughout the trip--windows into so many different lives: the off-the-grid fisherman, the Spanish school teacher, the 60-year-anniversary couple who invited me in for Rooibos tea, the California couple who told me interesting stories about their part of the world, and shared my enthusiasm for solo travel.

Church for sale on the Sunshine Coast. Baggins, feelin blessed.

Mutant Lily Update

2010-08-11T20:04:00.000-07:00

Lily gone mad.

In bud...

And in bloom...

Here's the Alice in Wonderland lily in bloom--apparently, a lily virus causes fasciation of the stem, so leaf and bud production goes berserk. First time I've seen a lily go this spectacularly berserk. I went berserk. Is that how you spell berserk? Bizerk.

Only in West Van...

2010-07-25T20:59:00.000-07:00

A lemonade stand....closed?

We told these kids we'd come over and buy some tasty lemonade as soon as we were finished, but alas.

Then, I accidently knocked over their flower bouquet when I tried to take a pic of their price sign (inserted, flag-style, in said flower bouquet). It was, also, super cute.

So, I guess I technically vandalized a lemonade stand. There is a special place in hell for me. On the other hand, that'll teach 'em. (What, I'm not sure.)

Blue Bicycle

2010-07-20T21:21:00.000-07:00

Art shot...

Discovered a new function on the camera today: "colour accent." Have no idea how to set what colour it accents, but apparently, today was blue...and red (see pic below). Some camera research is in order!

Trippy.

Magic tricks in Japanese maples...

2010-07-18T21:22:00.000-07:00

Hard to explain this one....

Took a look inside this Japanese maple to see if it needed any summer-time pruning; you know, dead or crossed branches and the like. Found this:

Cool. Japanese maples in general have a tendency to fuse if two branches cross: the bark rubs off, cambiums meet, fusion happens. You see fused branches more often in weeping Japanese maples, because the natural branching pattern tends to be a bit of a birdsnest. Standard maples, like the one above, look better--and have better air-circulation--if you help them along by encouraging a vase-like structure.

Funny thing is, I can hardly tell how the above loop formed. The branches must have fused in the middle and atrophied tell-tale branch ends....? Or is the top branch fork messy enough to raise fusion-suspicion?

Low end: looks pretty normal...

High end: suspicious?

Anyhoo, I left this 101 Wonders of Nature candidate intact. It's actually a smart evolutionary move on the part of the tree. Japanese maples are susceptible to fungal/viral infections so, instead of bearing open wounds caused by branch-friction--which would be an entry point for infection--they just seal the problem. If you can't fix it, fuse it.

One (Wo)man's Weed...

2010-07-15T22:12:00.000-07:00

...is another (wo)man's interesting specimen.

Some plants are borderline not-weeds. Granted, a 9 1/2 foot woolly mullein in the middle of a strawberry/blackberry patch may be pushing it. Rose questioned its existence today. Mike and I relented, but figure this impressive specimen takes the Who Let This Happen award for the summer. I do believe it was only 6 feet tall last week.

Oriental Lily Mutates: Over 200 Buds!

2010-07-14T21:55:00.000-07:00

Maybe I should call the Guinness Book of World Records, or the National Enquirer...

This lily is five feet tall, and either an Oriental or Aurelian hybrid; either way, you're lucky to normally get up to 20 flowers. I'm estimating over 200 here.

In the photo below, you can see how the stem has mutated. Somehow, cell division went berserk and continued sideways. It's as if several lilies are fused together on a flat stem that looks like wide ribbon licorice. The mutation also triggered over-zealous leaf and bud production.

My fingers show how wide the stem is at the top. (I have big hands, so that span is about six inches.)

If you're thinking what I'm thinking...yes, I've staked it, and yes, I'm planning a scooter-photography-mission when I get the Bud-Break Report. This unlikely specimen is in Pierre and Patti's garden, soon to be a destination for Horticultural Wonders of the World pilgrims. Limited time only!

2010-07-06T21:44:00.000-07:00

I also post news here from family in Ghana. Whether or not we're in the same hemisphere, the connection has been made. I'm so sad to say that Izi's brother Aryikwey has died. He's a couple years older than me. He died on Sunday, the last day of their mom's funeral. He was sick for the past few months and could not eat. He and his wife have four little boys, and I'm so sad for them.

One of his boys, Jerry (right, below), came to the outdooring of Anita's baby in 2009. He has Aryikwey's smile. Now, Izi will look out for the boys. I guess we don't ask why, with things like this. Jah knows.

Rest in peace. Gone too soon.

Ghana Rocks!

2010-07-04T20:30:00.000-07:00

Hey, here's my two bits on Ghana, now that the Little Country That Could has made its mark on the World Cup stage.

Here's a pic of our neighbourhood team in northern Ghana, 2007, the first time I went to volunteer and drum n' dance. Playing in flip-flops is not recommended. I took a bunch of tshirts, donated by Macey's Sports in North Vancouver, so we had great shirts despite our limited footwear.

Anyways, now that Ghana is topical, I have a few things to...clarify. Can't tell you how many times people here have shared horrific stories with me that they've "heard about Ghana." I completely understand why the many small countries that make up Africa are blurred together in people's minds, and how "car-crash journalism" tends to taint our perception of "the other side of the world."

So, to clarify two massive points:

Ghana does not have a "missing generation" due to the AIDS epidemic. This is a phenomenon more common in East African countries.

Ghana has not suffered a mass genocide or civil war.

If West Africa has a bad rep, it's because of the civil wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Cote Ivoire. I'd like to point out that all three of these countries never declared full independence from their respective colonial powers when Africa "turned over" in the 50s and 60s. They remained economically dependent and didn't claim full responsibility for running their own affairs. No strong unifying force took hold, so the regions deteriorated in competition for money money money--the whole country had sold its soul for it after all. In recent years, new leadership is starting the healing process.

The West African countries that did declare full independence--under ideallistic and determined leadership--immediately suffered from harsh penalties, infrastructure pull-outs, and sabotage by those same colonial powers. But you don't hear about them now because they are peaceful: Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Senegal, etc. What do you hear about them? Amazing music...poor, yes...proud.

I'd also like to point out that, unlike the countries in eastern and southern Africa where the more temperate climate attracted farming-type settlers, West African countries never experienced a wave of land-gobbling white folks. (Where the Sahara and savannah end in West Africa, the mosquitoes and tsetse flies begin. Tsetse flies kill horses.) Many of the problems in the eastern countries of Kenya/Zimbabwe/Uganda etc. were exascerbated by land issues: rich foreigners push local people off the best land (funny that, the same thing happened to the First Nations in North America), so local people start vying for remaining space. Strong tribes pummel weaker tribes, when pushed to extremes. (In North America, the First Nations population was overwhelmed by disease, bureaucracy, and immigration...but in Africa, local populations remained too strong to permanently subdue. First Nations may argue that they aren't "permanently subdued" ;)

I'd also like to point out that Nigeria--which has a rep as a crime hotbed--has been wading in crisis-level oil-industry corruption for so long that I hope the current BP spill sheds some light on ongoing "Third World" practices. (We can't pretend forever that it doesn't affect everyone.)

Now, oil has been discovered off the coast of Ghana, so I sure hope the world-wide watch-dog will be on the prowl. Already, European fishing trawlers are sieving the coastline and destroying the local fisheries. It's hard for us to make the connection when it's "so far away"--but these boats aren't a tourist attraction: people still use them to live...

The world isn't black and white anymore--it's rich and poor. People who are rich--even relatively speaking--wield tremendous power, just by the factor of having and making choices.

What I really mean to say is...the Black Stars rock! That team has heart and soul, and they play fine fine football :)

And Ghana is only a phone-call away :)

2010: Anita (back in school!) and Little Richard (happy alll the time!)

Still Life with...

2010-06-30T23:25:00.000-07:00

Doesn't everyone have a stump covered in rocks and...glittery bouncy balls...on their coffee table, with, say, a vase of Alchemilla mollis nearby? A shaft of morning sunlight transformed it all into something ethereal as I ran out the door today. Won't find this in a Dutch masterpiece, but I'm not much for dead pheasants anyways.

Still glorifying roses...

2010-06-30T22:49:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago, the yellow 'Graham Thomas' rose in the background got most of the glory in Anne and Peter's garden. This week, the foreground rose, 'Sunset...something' (it's coming to me...) is so beautiful we're wondering when Canon cameras will record scent. Anne figures we've broken some design rule, having a tall rose at the front of a bed, but all the better to sniff it.

Below, the panicles of a Hydrangea paniculata ('Kyushu' or a similiar cultivar) are just about to open behind 'Sunset...something' (my, I'm on top of my names tonight). The important botanical fact is that these rose cultivars are descended from old-fashioned roses; therefore, they tend to retain authentic qualities like fragrance and robustness, instead of sacrificing them for bred-for-market qualities such as repeat-bloom and wedding-cake-perfect-petals.

From the top step of the door stoop...

2010, The Year of The Big Bloom, recorded for posterity.

Summer-thyme

2010-06-30T22:23:00.000-07:00

A bee's-eye view...

Considering that the flowers of Geranium cinereum (below) are one inch across, this little lady is a lot smaller than I thought at the time.

So many dimensions in a garden :)

What's behind your roses?

2010-06-27T11:01:00.001-07:00

I've never understood the concept of formal rose gardens, where a hundred varieties compete for attention in geometric beds. For one thing, it's like being at a Calvin Klein convention: everyone's beautiful, so no one in particular stands out (such a drag). For another, rose blossoms are attractive but the plants themselves tend to be prickly and gawky. So I'm more in favour of interplanting roses with plants that soften and complement the dee-luxury of roses.

Here's the 'Joseph's Coat' climber by my front door, with California lilac (Ceanothus) and Achillea 'Moonshine' below, and a variegated ivy growing up around the post.

In Anne's garden, below, an un-named own-root cultivar unfolds in front of Choisya 'Sundance' and red valerian (Centranthus ruber).

Also in Anne's garden, this 'Graham Thomas' is a stand-out in front of the black-leafed elderberry, Sambucus 'Black Beauty'.

I took the picture below by holding the camera up over my head. Graham's outgrown the six-foot rebar frame Peter constructed last year!

And finally (until the next 'round of blooms anyways), here's a silvery display of a white 'Iceberg' rose in front of billowing Mexican hair grass (Stipa tenuissima) in Rojeanne and Jim's garden.

Japanese Irises in The Swale

2010-06-22T21:40:00.000-07:00

Wow. The white Japanese irises (Iris ensata) in Sheena and Terry's garden (in the swale-to-be) are busting out in full bloom. This is significant because we watched them dwindle away in the lower garden, where I now submit they were gradually overwhelmed by cedar roots. We were starting to talk nostalgically about the last time they bloomed.

Japanese irises are particlularly gorgeous and unusual because the blooms are flat.

Then, last year, I transplanted them into the new beds out front, where we are transforming the gravel pit into a swale garden (see entry on May 18 2010). They definitely have wet feet out here, since the water table reaches the surface this time of year. And they love it.

Here's the before-shot, from this May:

And here's one month's growth, in this crazy wet year:

That's a white hydrangea on the far left, followed by the white variegated leaf of the redtwig dogwood, Cornus sericea. There's a human leg, for scale, in the pic below.

Recycled Baby Stroller + Rubbermaid Bin = Bicycle Trailer

2010-06-20T19:51:00.000-07:00

Here's my Car-Free Day rig--nice wheels from those running-mommy-style baby stroller/joggers. A friend built it for me a couple years ago, but I've rarely used it for gardening. I loaded my handtools in a side pannier, and had no desire to regularly haul heavier items up North Van's hills. Now, of course, I'm scooter-ified.

Today, however, I resurrected the trailer for a Car-Free Day personal parade and tweaked some irksome elements to make it really roadworthy.

That is, I removed the bicycle rack. The trailer hitch is on the seat post, so the trailer bars always hit the rack when I turned corners. Now, it can swivel no problem, and I'm ready to haul some fun gear up the road for the summer. I'll get a kick-stand and a back fender first, and I'll rig some kind of shower-cap lid for the box so I can overload it if necessary. Quadra Island, here I come?!

Car-Free Day, North Van style, was a shade different from the mother-event on Commercial Drive. More skaters, fake snow and jumps for boarders (a la Olympics), boom-box music, and a deficit of colourful street performers. However, this was the first effort, and they did take clever advantage of the steep grade on Lonsdale. I found the organizer, who said another one is planned for September. So I'll get my act together for that one.

Car-Free Sunday!

2010-06-19T22:21:00.001-07:00

North Vancouver has a Car-Free Day!!

Agh--because I am a gardening workaholic with cbc.ca permanently tuned to a certain event in South Africa, I didn't hear until Friday that Car-Free Day has finally crossed the inlet...on Sunday! The streets around Lower Lonsdale will be full of fuel-free festivities.

As the Scooter-Gardener, formerly known as the Bicycle-Gardener, this calls for immediate and drastic action. I've hauled out the three bicycle-paintings I did in the depths of winter. I don't quite know what I'll do with them, but they seem appropriate. Here's one. The rest are in the sidebar and at the bottom of the page.

I've hauled out my baby-carriage-converted-into-a-bicycle-trailer. (I was considering a One Less Baby bumper sticker, but this may be obscure humour. You have to be familiar with the popular One Less Car bicycle-sticker.) I will fill said trailer with flowers and pedal the whole rig downtown.

I'm feeling like my vocation is still pretty fringe, despite my workaholic status. Obviously, there's enough of a niche out there for gardeners who don't run truck-operations. The savings in overhead are phenomenal, and some of those savings are passed on to customers. There are countless other benefits--all the Car-Free benefits--and it's not as difficult as you'd think to run a two-wheeled operation. You get better at logistics, organization, co-operation...

I think it's training for a energy-conservation future: one that I am not particularly afraid of. Everyone seems to dread an assault on our lifestyle, but I can see a healthier and more vibrant community evolving around more careful energy management.

Pink Police Report

2010-06-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

The Pink Police are out, and have reported this as the pinkest garden bed in the city. Bodaciously borderline. Warnings have been posted.

Pink dogwood, Pink paeonies, Pink thrift (Armeria maritima)

:
Pink everything from a different angle.

You kind of want to jump in it. But that would wreck it. Jumping in gardens is a distinctly unprofessional activity.

(This is Norma's garden. The third-year-planted pink dogwood is outrageously pink this year.)

Showing more restraint, the foxglove below is serenely Pink against a backdrop of California lilac (Ceanothus)...

But there's hundreds more where it came from. Glade of wild foxgloves in Roswitha's garden, below, as viewed through a Pink gateway of mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia)...

Up close, Kalmia latifolia unfolds as precisely as the most surprising Japanese paper sculpture.

Very pink.

Proof that I am in a Motorcycle Gang

2010-06-01T21:50:00.000-07:00

So yeah. I now qualify for the Sunday a.m. Lonsdale Beans biker gang.

Closer to the truth: I got waved down (again) by the local Ruckus maestro-mechanic known as Drew. Since January (the last time I got pulled over by the Maestro), Drew has continued to morph his formerly-known-as-Ruckus machine into something that closely resembles a down-sized Harley. The fact that an original Ruck (mine), a real-deal Harley, and the machine were parked side-by-side at the same time, within the same dimension, was definitely worth a pic.

Drew has a few tips for The Scoot, after which I'm sure I'd have to change it's name. The machine can go, hmm, a bit faster.

Recycle Broken Concrete!

2010-06-01T21:33:00.000-07:00

How genius is this?!

While I'm on the topic of flagstones, I'm posting another project-in-progress from the Eco-Theme-Park also known as Liz n' Len's back garden. I get excited about things like this--what a fantastic use of and "disposal" solution for cumbersome broken concrete!

In the past, I've used it in the place of flagstone for pathways or small patios--usually because a homeowner wants to remove an old cement pathway and forego disposal costs. Broken concrete has the same irregular shape as natural stone (see the slabs lying-in-wait in the photo above) so is surprisingly attractive once recessed in the earth as stepping stones.

However, it is also surprisingly attractive as a retaining wall, as well as easier to stack than natural stone. And shall we point out it's free and delivered to the site, because the source site owners/contractors are overjoyed to forego the hefty disposal costs!

I'll be lurking in Liz n' Len's garden on a regular basis because genius is known to rub off on people.

Flagstone around Tree

2010-06-01T20:44:00.000-07:00

Isn't this a beautiful? A couple years ago, the old scotch pine fell over in a windstorm so Anne and Peter replaced it with a Katsura tree, and Peter reconstructed the flagstone patio around it. Then Anne and I planted a groundcover potentilla and blue star creeper (Isotoma fluviatilis, formerly known as Laurentia--I don't know why "they" renamed it--Isotoma sounds like an ocular disease).

Anyways, the pale starry blue glows with the complementary orange deciduous azaleas in the background.

I'm really liking the fractured root-like pattern around the tree, and am convinced there's some kind of optical illusion going on--the surface looks like a dome. If you were a colourist/paintster, you'd say that's because the lightest colour is in the centre of a circle, which gives the impression of light striking the top surface of a dome.

Here we are--Gardening Co-Conspirators/Inspirators. (Anne said my shirt matched the garden so she had to take my picture. Anne is also a paintster. I said I had to take her picture because it's her garden!)

Sad News from Ghana family

2010-05-27T21:27:00.000-07:00

With love and respect to Easy's mother, Dora Naa Aryeley Odoom, who died on May 26, 2010 in hospital in Accra after an extended illness.

Dora had eight children, of whom Easy is the eldest, and was grandmother to many more. Here, she is holding Richard Nee Okaija Okai, Easy's own grandson and her first great-grandson, on his naming-day in March of 2009. Her youngest sons only recently came of age. Dora's own mother died in the fall of 2007, so it is with some shock that Dora is gone so quickly.

Dora's family is Ga, the seaside tribe in Accra who are traditionally fisherpeople, and somewhat famous for never leaving the coast and being incredibly stubborn. The first time Easy and I invited Dora and some family to Easy's land outside Accra, they managed to get completely lost and overshot the property to the next village, where Dora discovered some long-lost cousins. A couple weeks later, they tried again, and this time we shared a sweltering afternoon, preparing food and shifting with the shade around our tiny cement house and rambling garden. Dora and company, accustomed to seaside breezes, exclaimed and suffered in the heat.

For this reason, I can't imagine Dora anywhere else other than the alleyways of Bukum and Jamestown, where she lived for years and raised seven sons and one daughter. The poverty of the district--collapsing buildings, little sanitation, over-crowding--is hard to overlook, but the most affluent in Ghana cannot pay money for the cool breezes and spectacular views on the Ga coastline. And the fish don't get any fresher.

During the three winters I spent in Ghana, we often walked into Bukum at night, through the catacombs of kiosk-lined streets, to visit Mother Dora. In honour of the occasion, she would move from her chair in the alley and switch on the light in her blue room, where we'd share our latest digi-photos over Maltas (the soda-pop version of Guiness beer). Dora didn't speak English, so I never understood her opinions, but I know she had plenty of them. She was no-nonsense, the way mothers of seven sons can be, and often weary. Easy and I bumped into her once, in the street, with friends, carrying a small bag of something on her head, and we were all surprised to see each other out of context. I remember thinking, isn't it remarkable that I know this woman, that we are connected.

Non-Toxic Solutions: Copper Kitchen Scrubbers

2010-05-25T22:47:00.000-07:00

Here's Hugh, unravelling a common copper kitchen scrubber, and cutting it into loops for a non-toxic slug-deterrent. Slugs won't cross copper--the copper reacts with slugslime and delivers a little slug-sized shock. You don't want to use commercial edible slug baits, which also attract four-legged friends like Dora here.

While I'm off getting acquainted with the perennials in this new-to-me garden, Hugh is busy constructing his extraordinary Squash-Mobilization System:

First, he constructed a pile of sod, compost, and manure and covered it with black plastic to retain heat and accelerate the composting process.

Then he cut holes in the top and planted squash starters, fitting them with their "slug-collars." By the time the leaves span the collars, the plants will be robust enough to survive slug attacks. Squash love warm growing conditions, so the heat generated by the pile and the black plastic in hot sun will amplify our North Shore summer.

In the meantime, take a moment to consider this rose...

Non-Toxic Solutions are great, but don't do what I did

2010-05-25T21:05:00.000-07:00

I figure any chemistry information I pass along will be in the What Not To Do department--which is still helpful, don't you think? That's why I stick to non-toxic solutions and generally avoid anything more caustic than toothpaste.

I'm into Non-Toxic Alternatives in general, but these days I've gone to the next level because I have a book on non-toxic cleaning. You can clean almost anything (including your hair) with baking soda, vinegar, soap, salt...and a few other really common harmless substances.

I'm posting my brass-cleaning experiment because it's cool, in spite of its outcome. I figure ya learn by trial and error.

I found these lanterns on the side of the road with a sign that said "Free! Put some light in your life!" when I was en route to Heather's birthday garden party.

This was divine intervention, because Heather is quite possibly the Queen of Scavenging and finding her present on the side of the road en route to the party was quite possibly the ultimate manifestation of Scavenging Faith.

I think I out-scavenged the Scavenging Queen. You know--"oh, I'll find something on the way"--as literal as it gets. This also makes me sound super-cheap, which makes this even more funny. I did offer to clean them up for her, because they were pretty grimy.

In fact, I opened up my fancy book and found this recipe for...

Non-Toxic Brass Cleaner
2/3 cup white flour
2/3 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup table salt
Mix up in a bowl and goop all over brass surfaces like so...

...and then leave it to soak for a couple hours or even overnight.

That is a quote. It even foretold that the said goopy brass-cleaning mixture would turn green...which it did. By morning it looked like this:

By this time, my mind was starting that faint recollection process which only ever happens after it's too late:

...didn't I read somewhere that salt is...corrosive...to metal...?

And yes, when I washed off the goop, the brass was an odd flat mottled colour...as if the finish had been...eaten away.

So I'm sure this would work properly if you just left it on for an hour or two.

Oh well--they still look pretty with a candle glowing inside.

And the scavenging award goes to...