A New Paint Job!

After many years of needing it, months of planning, much rending of garments and tearing hair out by the handsful, we have finally got our house painted.

We have known it needed doing for years but kept putting it off figuring it would cost us a small fortune. When we finally got serious about it we started asking around. One day while visiting at some friend's home we noticed they had a new paint job and that it looked great. They gave us Ken Anderson's number and we had him stop by to bid the job. We were shocked at how inexpensive his price seemed. We loved the job he had done on our friend's home and so we gave him the job.

Ken came by about 2 weeks before painting began and pressure washed the entire house and even did the deck. He also handed off two paint sample booklets and said he'd be back to begin painting August 1st. In the meantime we had hundreds of colors to select from and no idea where to start.

We recalled a house a few blocks over that had a color scheme we liked. So we walked by their house one afternoon and asked if we could put our paint samples up against their house because we loved their colors so much. They were very flattered and invited us to go ahead. Leslie held one paint sample after another up against the wall until we found what we thought were the right colors.

Time passed and got away from us and the day came for Ken to arrive to begin prepping the house for painting. We still hadn't done what we had said we would which was to go to the paint store and bring home some quart samples. We intended to paint a strip of paint and the coordinating trim color on the side of the house just to see if we liked it.

So the day came, Ken arrived and we zipped off quickly to buy the samples. Arriving home we painted a swath of color across the side of the house and stood back in horror! NOOOOOOOO! The color was hideous. Impossible! No way!!! The color looked like a pastel green Easter egg. What do we do? Ken needs to know what color to buy gallons of paint tomorrow morning so he can begin painting.

In a panic we drove around through several neighborhoods looking for something we liked. Nothing. Finally we decided to just drive back to the paint store and hash it all out until we made a decision. I wanted the paint to go more gray. Leslie was just not sure anymore. We looked at the same several strips of color options we had been focused on since the beginning and our eyes finally settled on this one color that was green but more towards the gray side. I don't know, it's hard to explain. You really have to go through this process sometime to understand the pressure and frustration it can be. We purchased a quart of that color along with a darker trim and also selected an even grayer option and trim color.

Back home we applied the paints to the wall of the house and waited. As it dried the color popped and we had our choice. "Dishwater" was the color name and "relic" the trim color. Not great names so for fun we elected to change the names for purposes of better story telling. The body color of the house is now called "Puget Sound Foam" and the trim color "Great Northwest Forest." Much better, huh?

We informed Ken of our decision and the next morning at 7:30 am we awoke to the sound of Ken making final preparations for painting. About 9:30 am we went out to go mattress shopping (a whole other blog entry). We returned a couple of hours later to what appeared to be a white house. I thought it would change once it dried. Leslie was worried it wouldn't. We decided to leave again and do more shopping. Leslie was nervous the whole way home, sure she was going to hate what she would find when we drove up to the house. Surprise! As we slowed and turned into the driveway we looked up at exactly the color we had chosen--It was beautiful. The lightest of greens, almost an overtone if that makes any sense. The color had dried while we were gone and the color popped just as it had in the sample we painted on the house the day before. It is a strange color though as it seems to be one color when the sun is on it and another when it is not. Cool!

So, here it is. The on-line unveiling of our newly painted home.

The Orchard Mason Bee

Remember the mystery question from one of my earlier blog entries? Here is the photo again.

The answer: This is an Orchard Mason Bee colony. Remember the line from the movie Field of Dreams--"If you build it they will come?" Well, I built the little "Bee Condo" as I like to call it, from a block of wood and the bees came.

Here are some links to info on Orchard Mason Bees--these links have further links at the bottom of the article too.

WSU Extension

Knox Cellars

Beediverse

Actually it wasn't quite that easy. At least not the way I went about it. In fact, my wife cringes everytime I tell the story.

A great gardening friend has a yard with these "bee condos" scattered around his yard and he enjoys their benefits. I spoke with Keith, as I occasionally do when I need gardening advice, about these condos a few years back. I was intrigued but didn't do anything further about it until I happened upon a book written by a local Bellinghamster who has created quite a business around Mason Bees.

It turns out that the Orcard Mason Bee is native, unlike the honey bee, to North America. It is docile and non-aggressive but does not produce honey. However, with our current worries surrounding the dying honey bee population in the United States, the Mason Bee may just hold the answer to our problems. We can do without honey, but if our pollinating bees die off we are in big trouble where our food supply is concerned. The Mason Bee is apparently not effected by the current disease plaguing our honey bee population and because they are not the social critters the honey bee is, needing expensive hives and protective wear, they are perfect for our home garden needs.

I was at one of the local garden centers when I happened upon a display selling Orchard Mason Bees and all sorts of accesories. I decided to purchase a small colony (they are kind of expensive--$20-$25 will get you about 60 bees) and bought the bee house with the tubes the colony came in. I took it home, mounted it to the south facing side of my barn and waited for the bees to do their thing.

One warm spring day I went out to check the colony and the tubes were all empty. The bees had flown the coop or hive to be more precise!

I had spent a couple a hundred dollars to buy a table saw and a drill press so I could make my own bee condos and to buy the initial colony of bees. I went ahead and built a condo and mounted it to the wall near where the colony had already hatched and flown off. Then I waited. And waited. And waited. After a couple of weeks I finally noticed one of the holes in my condo had been filled in. By the end of the Spring pollinating time a total of two holes had been filled in. Of the hundreds of bees that the colony should have produced only a couple of dozen new eggs had been laid for the next season. It seemed like an utter waste of money. It reminded me of the time I bought one of those netted bags full of dozens of Lady Bugs, released them in my garden and watched as they all flew off to my neighbor's garden. I didn't see another ladybug in my yard the rest of the summer.

Well, patience is a valuable virtue any gardener will tell you. Each year since, I have observed my bee condo become a little more and a little more congested. The other day I was carrying out some rinds to put in the compost bin located right below the bee condo. Out of the corner of my eye I caught some movement and looked up to see a little Orchard Bee finishing off a hole with mud. I stood watching, fascinated by the little bee working to seal up the next generation before going off to die. I have about a dozen holes filled in and I am feeling enough confidence that I may spend some time in my shop this winter creating some more bee condos.

I found out from my gardening friend Keith that I had really probably wasted my money purchasing the initial colony of Orchard Mason Bees. He said, if you had built the condo to begin with and placed it out on the fence or barn, bees already roaming the neighborhood would have eventually come to the holes and my colony would have been established. Live and learn!

Berry Pickin'

Here in Bellingham it is berry season--blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and on and on. You can buy them in local stores like anywhere else in the country. But here in Bellingham, on a nice summer day, going berry picking is so much fun. Relaxing, meditative, the birds are singing, you can hear the breeze, smell the warm berries on the vines and that is exactly what we did the other day.

Raspberry picking to be exact. We need a bunch of berries this season for the big party approaching in September.

Leslie and I stopped at Barbie's Berry Farm stand out in the county. The county north of town is dotted with summer farms that grow all sorts of summer time treats-corn, squash, berries, you name it. Barbie's specializes in berries. We each picked up a couple of the little white buckets found at every farm and headed down a random row of berries. The bright red berries dotted the vines as far as the eye could see. The darker red the berry the riper the fruit.

Our first row didn't seem to have many berries as ripe as we'd like to pick, so we finally walked on through to the next set of rows and what a gold mine! The berries practically fell off the vines into the buckets. Before no time I was on to my second bucket and then on to my third. Leslie got her three as well and after a couple of hours we finally re-emerged from the rows to pay for our bonanza. The berries were weighed and we discovered that we had picked 30 pounds of them.

Now we found raspberries on sale for about $5-$6 a pound in local grocery stores and I can't imagine paying $150 for those 30 pounds of raspberries. But not if you pick them yourself. Most area farmstands are selling them for $1.50-$1.75 per pound if you pick them. So we headed home with our berries with the idea to rinse and freeze most of them. Raspberries are very fragile and won't last long so this is a great way to preserve them and have great tasting berries throughout the winter months.

After a quick rinse and allowing them to dry on a few layers of paper towel, spread them out on baking sheets, freeze them and then seal them in freezer bags. When we need a few we just scoop the needed amount out of the bag and plop them in a pie or cobbler or over cereal throughout the winter and those warm, breezy summer days come flooding right back.

In a couple of weeks we will go out blackberry picking to go along with the blueberries and raspberries and we'll have a wonderful supply of berries for our cobblers at the big party in September.

Wish you were here!

The Berm

The southeastern most part of our back garden is and always has been a rounded berm of dirt about 3 feet high running about 35 feet from east to west, between the truck gate on the side yard and the barn.

It has always been a pain to keep weeded with little else able to grow there except the recent introduction of English Ivy from our neighbors and the half dozen cottonwoods that reached upwards from 30 feet to 100 feet into the sky.

I have explored the berm on occasion when attempting to keep the weeds down. Digging in this berm I have come across such odd objects as a child's wading pool, nails, coaxial cable, cyclone fencing and chunks of concrete. It turns out it was where those who constructed the home buried all the debris they didn't want to be bothered hauling away. Eventually I gave up trying to keep it managed and let the ivy take over. What a mistake!

The ivy finally got so out of control that it was climbing the trees and even invading the barn. It was time to do something. So I thought. Years have gone by thinking about it and nothing was ever done short of keeping the ivy from taking over the barn.

Last Spring, as I have already mentioned in a previous blog entry, we finally downed the cottonwood trees. This left a gapping hole between us and the neighbors that left us both with no privacy. We are friendly neighbors but everyone needs their privacy. So we promised we would do something soon.

So last week we hired a guy with a tractor scoop and back hoe to remove the berm, all the trash buried in it and the ivy down to their roots, down to a depth of about 4 feet. He also removed most of the cottonwood stumps. Then we had 15 yards of good sandy loam trucked in and our excavator built a brand new berm ready for landscaping.

Three groups of three arborvitae were planted along the crest of the new berm with a shrub between each group of three arborvitae. Each group of three arborvitae were planted in triangular formation on a 4 and a half foot center so the arborvitae will not grow together and there is a sense of depth to the plantings. Two butterfly bushes frame either end of the formation and we will add layered plantings along the front of the berm to finish it off as we discover plants we like.

I believe this will be a work in progress like every other part of our garden since I want to be selective about the plants I purchase. I look for unique and unusual plants as well as native plants to fill in the spaces. Time and money will eventually fill in the gaps.

On the right is a photo of The Secret Garden with the large native shrub in the background now framed by two more arborvitae. These plants act as a sort of picture frame around the gravel stage running along in front of the shrub.

Table for 280, Please!

Well, it is over, Whew! After weeks of planning and finally carrying out the marching orders the dinner came off with narry a hitch. At least from the diner's perspective and in the food service world that is what matters most.

Mike, Fred and Bill on the BBQ!

Last Monday night, 280 members of our church descended on the social hall ready to celebrate the 125th birthday of the First Congregational Church of Bellingham (FCCB). I was honored to be asked to run the kitchen end of the festivities. Our theme was an old-fashioned barbecue picnic. Revelers were encouraged to dress in western wear--bandanas, cowboy boots, etc. The social hall was decked out with an enormous facade of a big red barn. A stage was erected in front of the barn and various folks entertained as the evening went along. A special message of congratulations was read from our state's govenor Gregoire.

The pies layed out in the hallway.

The menu:

Barbecued Chicken

Corn on the Cob

Baked Beans

Cole Slaw

Fruit Salad

Rolls

Pie

But what was happening in the kitchen? Well, it wasn't always pretty. The kitchen which is probably designed to feed about 100-150 comfortably was taxed way beyond its limit. The reach-in refrigerator died, and the chicken, which had been stored in that refrigerator, was discovered at the last minute to have gone bad.

Chef Michael, moi, sitting on my duff waiting for the chicken!

We sent out two volunteers to bring back about 100 pounds of ice and I turned the refrigerator into an ice box. The temperature in the fridge which had risen to 54 degrees went back down to 41 degrees and that disaster was averted. Food which had been taken across the street to another church for storage was returned and stayed nice and chilled in our makeshift ice box.

The dinner was prepared in a kitchen which was never designed to cook for those numbers of people by a cadre of hard-working, amazingly talented people who just made it happen by sheer force of will. We enlisted the help of adjacent rooms normally used for meetings and Sunday School to help spread out the preparation. Cole Slaw was served out of the board room, and the hallway was the staging area for cutting and plating pies brought in by the congregation. Fruit salad was served out of another hallway. The chicken was being barbecued out in the courtyard by three amazing guys on a smaller than expected rental barbecue.

Jean, on left, dining room manager par excellance!

Corn bubbled away on the stove top in huge pots and the baked beans baked below in the ovens.

So what of the rotten chicken? Well, when it was discovered to be bad, the smell would have knocked you over, a phone call to the local Fred Meyer was answered by a young employee who was taken compleely by surprise when I requested 400 pieces of chicken. "When do you want them?" he asked as if in slow motion. Perhaps it was my panic that made him seem as if he were in slow motion, but when I said I was sending two people over to get them right now, he sat up and paid a little more attention.

The chicken arrived and was whisked to the waiting barbecuers. The diners only clue something was not right was that the dinner was served about 45 minutes late. The news was carried to the mistress of ceremonies with instructions to S-T-R-E-T-C-H the speaking and entertainment portion.

Finally, about 7:30 dinner service began to the cheers of the crowd. At the end of the meal, my crew was beckoned into the hall where the crowd gave them a warm, appreciative standing ovation.

To my team of folks who worked so hard to pull this meal off, thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. This was a tough one and you stood rock steady, were flexible, came up with great ideas as the moment required to help make what should have been impossible to do, not only possible but delicious! Jean, Fred, Mike, Bill, George, my sous chef Leslie and numerous others who stepped in here and there to serve, clean up and plate up, you were simply amazing!

The left overs went were delivered to the our local Lighthouse Mission at about 10 PM and was received by a small group of very grateful guys.

Garden Photos

The Secret Garden Project (scroll down to see the previous blog entry) is basically done for this season. Which isn't to say that a great deal more couldn't be done, but just that money and time are dwindling and other things need accomplishing before the big party in September.

One more big project needs to be completed. That is the unsightly berm along the edge of the garden near the hot tub. Earlier in the spring we were able to remove 6 very tall Cottonwood trees which have rained various plagues upon us for years, the final one being the cost of removing them. First comes the falling branches through the winter during some of our nor'easters. Then comes the sticky, yellowish seed pods that ruined our carpet when pods were inadvertantly dragged in on the bottoms of shoes and have stuck themselves all over the hot tub cover, the furniture, etc. Insidious! Then comes the flying fluff that blows all over in drifts, up your nose causing allergic reactions. Thank God they are gone! Enter new problem. Our neighbors whose garden is at a lower elevation than ours now enjoys seeing us look down on their entire back garden leaving them with absolutely no privacy. More about the solution later.

Next we poured buckets (well not buckets, but a lot) of Round Up over the berm to kill off the English Ivy and the blackberries that had covered the ground and climbed well up into the trees. That done the berm now looks like a World War I bunker, just an ugly pile of dirt. Sadly, under that pile of dirt lurks another surprise. When this housing development was created the builders decided it would be a good idea to bury the construction debris rather than haul it away leaving us with the eventual problem of disposing of it should we decide at some future date to actually landscape the berm. To date I have dug up portions of a child's wading pool, chicken wire, rocks of assorted sizes (no real surprise there), nails, lumber, etc. It all has to go. So we plan to remove the soil, etc. by hiring a bobcat to come in and scrap the mound away. Then they will haul in new topsoil and create a new berm worthy of landscaping.

That leads us back to that earlier privacy issue I mentioned. We will plant a screen of arborvitae in groups of three across the crest of the new berm leaving a space between each group of three for another shrub to add color and texture and break up the repetitiveness of the arborvitae. The photo at right is an example of how that planting might look.

We are now getting bids to have the berm itself removed. I have ignored the rest of the garden what with my concentration on getting certain aspects of the Secret Garden finished. When I did stroll the rest of the garden I discovered blossoms and wanted to share a few photos of what's been blooming. Enjoy!

The Ruby Slipper Dogwood has bloomed for weeks. A gift from the family of a former student, this variety of dogwood was developed by the student's grandfather, owner of Well's Nursery in Mount Vernon. Stunning!

Finally, I found a spot my Bleeding Heart loves!

My first Foxglove flowers!

I planted two Clematis, one on either side of the arbor in the Upper Garden. I purchased them on the clearance table at a local nursery. The plants were sickly looking and were only about three inches tall. I gave them a try and three years later they have reached the top of the arbor and bloom profusely. Patience!

Transplanted Red Hot Poker, a gift from a neighborhood gardening friend, these are one year olf transplants. I can't wait until next year!

The baskets surrounding the gazebo are filled with pansies and, in this case, a beautiful Fuscia.

Hydrangea is one of my very favorite flowering shrubs. I must have a dozen different varieties and colors scattered throughout the garden and I'm always looking to adding some new ones. This old-fashioned shrub is never out of fashion in my opinion.

And now, the question of the day. What in the world is this block of wood for? Note that some of the holes are filled in. After taking this photo another half dozen of the holes became filled in. Stumped? A future blog will answer the mystery!

Our Secret Garden Takes Shape

I have always loved Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic children's book The Secret Garden and my summer 2008 garden project takes its inspiration from this story. The point of my Secret Garden is to create a defined garden space that would be set aside for future grandbabies. This should not be taken by my daughter as a challenge to speed up her biological clock as it will take the garden several years to mature! On the other hand . . .

My Secret Garden is the southeastern corner of our backyard. Its footprint is an approximately 25' X 40' plot running uphill from east towards west. It gets full sun during the morning and part of the afternoon which is really good for our yard.

This garden will be inhabited only by plants that children love and that can be easily grown, easily harvested and eaten right on the spot. Strawberries, blueberries, currents, sunflowers, carrots, radishes, green beans, apples, plums, etc. will be the mainstays of this garden along with flowers. It will also be hidden away from the rest of the yard surrounded by an English-style privet hedge. You enter through a garden path framed by an arbor. Many of our family are performers of one type or another, so I am creating a stage where plays or other performances can take place. At the crown of the hill overlooking the garden and stage, a summer house will be constructed. It will be a retreat for anyone wishing a place to go to write, sketch, meditate, nap or just to use your imagination! Grandbabies will find their own gardening tools, gloves and hats waiting and it will become a place for their imagination to take flight. The architecture for the structure hasn't been selected as yet, but the structure is a couple of years in the future so we have some time to think about that.

Step one was completed earlier in the Spring when I purchased and planted 2 new apple trees (I'm especially proud of the old-fashioned Gravenstein), an Italian Plum and 2 beautiful hazelnut trees. These trees define the north and south boundaries of the Secret Garden.

Step 2 was building 2 new raised beds seen in this photo looking east towards the barn. The beds were built of 2" X 6" cedar and anchored in place with 2" X 2" stakes on each corner and at the mid points along the long sides. Each bed, measures 4' X 8'. The difficulty in actually placing them in their permanent location was getting them level in a location that runs down hill both east/west and north/south. Yikes! On the uphill side of the beds the top edge was nearly at ground level while the other side stood at its full 12" height.

I found my arbor, which will serve as the entry into the Secret Garden, at a local garden center. I was especially proud of this purchase since I had almost purchased it earlier in the season when it went on sale the first time. For some reason I didn't buy it and it went back to full price for a time. A couple of weeks later it went on sale again, this time for a significantly lower price than the first time. As an added incentive it was already put together. It sat upright at a funny angle in the yard for several weeks until I could get to that part of the project.

Here the arbor has been put in place. As with the raised beds the slope of the hillside made placing the arbor level a real challenge. I dug a hole, removing sod, rocks and dirt down to a level so that the arbor would stand level front to back and side to side. Doing this required that I build a small retaining wall on the uphill side of the arbor since the proximity of the hole to the nearby hazelnut tree could be a problem down the road. The wall was built on a bed of gravel and constructed of the pre-made concrete decorative blocks popular today and available at most garden and hardware centers.

Then I drove long stakes through the holes in the base of the four legs to give it some stability. I buried the base with soil up to the level where the gravel path would be laid. Black ground cloth was cut to fit the area and then the limestone gravel carefully shoveled onto the cloth creating a 2 inch thick gravel path. This added to the further stability of the base.

Walking through the arbor lands you on a downhill slope which immediately put you off balance so I cut further into the hill to create a terraced entry space. This created a 4-6 inch drop in elevation which was a problem if you wanted to turn and walk uphill. So I purchased more of the retaining wall blocks and used them to create a single step defining the beginnings of a stair system which will be added to if needed. The step will lead uphill to the right and to the future location of another building for children.

I decided I wanted a gravel path at the bottom of the garden space leading along an already established flower bed and ending with a wide, open space that would serve as a stage where kids could put on plays. It is backed by an already established shrub 8 feet tall and 12 feet wide covered with beautiful purple flower spikes during the mid-summer. On either side I will plant a arbovitae to define the sides of the stage and give it that Greek amphitheater look. At center stage will sit a cement Greek-style bench for those who just want to sit in the garden. Below the path is completed and wraps around the back of the barn where a small lean to greenhouse will be built for growing starts for annuals and for the vegetable garden beds. At the far end of the path you can see the widened area that will be used as the stage for the amphitheater. The cedar 2 X 6's leaning against the barn roof will become the audience bench seats along the long side of each raised bed facing the stage.

I am now in the process of tilling the north side border of the Secret Garden so that I can plant a hedge of Golden Vicary Privet. This will lend an more formal accent to the Secret Garden. Along the southern side of the hedge, on the inside of the Secret Garden, will be enough bed space to plant more flowers and some blueberries. I planted 2 blueberries many years ago but located them in a too shady location, so I am hoping that I can transplant them and have them become much more fruitful in the coming years. The photo at right shows a portion of the new bed and the planted privet hedges which will eventually be about 5 feet high and wide sequestering the new garden from the rest of the yard. An underground automatic drip irrigation system runs beneath the bed.

When I have finished my projects for this summer in the Secret Garden, I will have only one major hardscape portion to build in order to finish off this garden space. At the top of the hill overlooking the entire Secret Garden, I will construct a playhouse. The architecture is yet to be decided as are the final dimensions. I haven't decided whether to make a summer retreat large enough to be able to go take a nap in or sit and write or sketch, or whether to just keep it simple as a child's playhouse. I'll post more photos as the garden grows and I add significantly to it. In the meantime, I need to get back to the garden!