Early June garden











 






 





















Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Apricot Tart

Image
These rainy, cold, blustery days call for some baking! Apricot Tart The filling, divine enough to eat as a breakfast treat, can be made days ahead and refrigerated. I made this three days before baking the tart and stored it in the refrigerator. Filling 12 ounces dried apricots 2 cups water 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 1/4 tsp almond extract Optional: 1 TBS. rum, cognac or kirsch ( I used kirsch ) Optional: 2 TBS thinly sliced toasted almonds (I did not use )  Soak the apricots overnight in the water. Place the soaked apricots and water in a heavy saucepan. Add the sugar and mix. Over high heat, stir the mixture until it comes to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover, raise the heat to high again. Stir constantly until the mixture begins to thicken and the apricots fall apart. This will take a while (almost 20 minutes for me). You can also slice the apricots as you do it with your spoon. Remove from ...
Read more

Spring is on the way!

Image
Imagine having two consecutive days off work and having spectacular weather for working in the garden. That happened this week and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I got onion sets planted, got several bird houses up, transplanted and pruned some things, made some progress on the terraces and expanded some existing beds. The garden appears to be slowing waking up from its winter nap. There isn't a lot to see yet but gardeners can see the changes taking place. The approach of spring is always an exciting time in the garden. The only flowers I can find blooming at the moment are from the lone hellebore I planted last fall. Helleborus x ballardiae Gold Collection 'Merlin' My neighbor has the most beautiful crocus blooming right now. Note to self - plant some in the fall! I haven't added many plants to the garden lately but I did get a Weeping Sequoia planted at the driveway entrance a few weeks ago.  Sequoiadendron giganteum 'Pendulum' The terraced beds are almost finishe...
Read more

Open Gardens: The Babbit / Bartholomew Garden

Image
After spending our weekends working ourselves to death in the garden, we finally took some time to visit other gardens this past Sunday. It was a rainy day and wasn't the best to be outdoors but we made the most of it and saw some wonderful gardens in Portland. The first stop was the garden of Michael Babbit and Ellen Bartholomew. This is a delightful small garden that is packed to the max with beautiful plants as well as glass art (by Ellen) and metal ornaments (by Michael). We enjoyed chatting with the owners and seeing their beautiful work. Of course, any garden that features roses and clematis is going to win me over! There were many other fabulous plants as well. There was so much to see. The "Mozart" rose was really spectacular. This unidentified rose seemed to glow in the overcast lighting. This Alstroemeria (Peruvian Lily) was also a showstopper. The gardeners are also avid bonsai enthusiasts and had a large collection of plants that they are working with. I forgo...
Read more