A Summer of plenty brings us to the doorstep of Autumn

We blinked, and all of a sudden summer has come and gone. The summer in the gardens was lovely.

We had many visitors to the gardens through the programs sponsored by the Interpretive Center and harvested produce for donation at local food banks. The Summer Concert Series held on the grounds was a lot of fun, and several of the garden volunteers spent time in the gardens talking with visitors during the concerts intermission.

We had new flower varieties to share, and fresh and different vegetable plantings to try. This beautiful Dahlia was a gift from the Ft. Vancouver gardeners, Bright Eyes.

 This gem is a Moon and Stars Watermelon.  A small fruit, we only had one this year.

 The Broom Corn towered over the gardens this year.  Later in the fall we will make some brooms to share during demonstrations in the garden.

  Late summer brings us to the gardens for harvesting vegetables and collecting seeds.  It's a wonderful time to visit and reflect on the success of the gardens, and look forward to what the next season may bring us. 

The Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce seeds looked so delicate in their stalks above the plants.

 And I can't resist working on the long term vision for the roses.  Hopefully we will see the completion of the Rose garden re-hab in the next few months.  

Our  Cardinal de Richelieu was an overgrown mass of canes, in fact it had become a favorite spot for some of the nesting birds in the garden.  I found this nest in the early spring.   

He had long overgrown the space given in the garden.

It will be interesting to see how he grows next season, after such a hard pruning.









If you have been a visitor in the gardens, thank you for stopping by! If you have yet to stroll through this peaceful garden spot, take some time in the next few weeks before early autumn turns to fall rains.  And the gardens have been put to bed for the season.

*To see more photos from this summer and fall click on the albums in the left column.

June Gardens

It's hard to believe that summer arrived yesterday. If your garden is like ours, it's growing like crazy!

June was a beautiful month at the End of the Oregon Trail.  We began to harvest the Tennis Ball lettuce in May, and had more ready for the food bank in June too.  And last week Kathy harvested some gooseberries from our bush out by the sidewalk.  We completed the vegetable bed with squash, watermelon, cabbage, beets, carrots, cucumbers, potatoes, peppers and broom corn. (I think that is everything!)





The herb and flower gardens are coming along too.  The lambs ear is very vigorous this time of year, the Mullein is beginning to bloom and we have Marigolds, Zinnias, Cleome, Dahlias, Nigella (Love in a Mist) Amaranth and Sunflowers all coming up.  The daylilies are budding up nicely too: the Feverfew and Foxglove are stunning right now.



The hops have been climbing up a storm, and sheltering a very nice population of ladybug eggs and larvae. We need them to take care of all the aphids on the roses and other plants in the garden.  I found a nest with two eggs in the Old Cardinal rose bush when I went to prune it back.  The birds have been busy eating the insects off the veggies, and we even had Chickadees in the birdhouse on the hops arbor.

Hollyhocks are on their way, and the Scarlet Runner Beans are beginning to climb the Tee Pee again. (we gave the Tee Pee a bit of a trim a few weeks ago to give room for the beans to climb)

We had two student groups in May and June.  The team showed them how the compost bins work, talked about gardening in the 1800's and had time for some hands-on planting in pots too.

Roses continued their show in June, with the very last blooming just about two weeks ago.  But he was sure worth the wait!  By the beginning of July most of the roses will be done for the season, and I will be very busy getting them all deadheaded and trimmed for next year's show.



Here are more photos from June.  I hope you get a chance to stop in and see the gardens this season. We are all very excited to see the progress, and share with visitors. You may even see us in the gardens on weekends, and during the open air concert series beginning on Thursdays in July.

                                     

Springtime in the Gardens

We have sure been busy in the gardens this year!  Planting, weeding, and taking the time to just step back and observe.

Most of the vegetables are planted.  See the tab at the top of the page: Vegetables in the garden to see more details about what's growing.

And we are updating the Herbs and Flowers in the garden tab too, make sure to take a peek.  There are some really interesting herbs growing right now.  And I will be updating the info and photos as time permits.

One of the things we all love the most is seeing how the garden progresses from planting to harvest.  The Springtime Gardens album in the left column has been updated with photos taken in the garden in April and May.  Click the preview and the pics open in a new tab full size. Or simply click here.

The roses have been blooming and really putting on a show this year.  Take a look at the album in the left column.  Click the preview and the pics open in a new tab full size.   Or simply click here.

And remember, you can find us in the gardens on Mondays during the growing season. Stop in and say Hi!

Virtual Housekeeping

It's been about a year since we put up the new pages with information about the Vegetables, Roses and Herbs & Flowers in the gardens.  I am happy to report that photos and descriptions have been added to the Herbs and Flowers in the garden page.

It's been a really beautiful spring in the rose garden.  Nearly every rose has bloomed now so the Roses in the garden page has been updated with new photos.

With all the excitement over the work with the roses this year there hasn't been much time for writing. I have photos from this spring yet to post, and will get to them very soon.



In the meantime, if you are out and about, make sure to take the time to stop over in the next few weeks to see the roses in full bloom, and the improvements made over the past few months.

*see you in the gardens

January in the gardens

Everyone knows that winter is a great time for garden chores.  Planting cover crops to nourish the soil, cleaning up debris to make room for new growth, pruning for the health of the plants.

In January we had a pruning demo covering the correct way to prune our fruit trees.  Monica Maggio is a passionate instructor for the OSU Extension service. (more about her on her webpage: Core Fruit Institute). She came out and gave us a hands-on session about our trees, and how to care for our tools too.

The day was clear and cold.  I love taking pics on days like this, the skies are so clear and blue.  You can really see the bones of the gardens in the wintertime, being out there really fills us with anticipation and hope for the coming year.

I will let the photos tell the rest of my story.  Enjoy!

clicking the first image opens a photo carousal for viewing