sprig to twig

If only we could get our gardens to pace things a little better.

This is one of three buckets this size that I made into sauce last week after we gave a bunch away to friends. Same thing this week, but it should be about the end of them.

Richard held this pineapple tomato to give you an idea of the scale (he has pretty big hands). These are very meaty, great for sauce and one slice is all that’s needed for a sandwich. Oh, and you know those little green ones that didn’t quite make it to ripe? They are great diced and sautéd for omelets.

Meanwhile, the apples are coming on strong. I love the way they look on the tree.

But they won’t stay there forever. We leave a few on the ground for the deer, stash some in the shed for eating through the winter, and then..

…into the pot they go, cut into eights, cores, pips, skins and all (sources of natural pectin). Add some cider and boil vigorously for about half an hour. Use an immersion blender to mush them all up and force through a fine sieve.

Return the strained pulp to the pot with a vanilla bean, split (optional), a couple of cinnamon sticks and fresh ginger to taste, peeled and quartered. Add a cup of brandy and simmer over low heat until thick and caramel-colored (two to three hours). I stir in another slug of brandy at the end, so that you can really taste it. Process like any jam. The result: about 7 half-pints of brandied apple butter, plus a little extra to have immediately, warm, on English muffins or scones.

Find more ways to have fun in your kitchen at Greenish Thumb…and say “Hi” to Wendy for me.

Things are heating up slowly (color-wise, that is) as temperatures dip and flowers fade.

The witch hazel will catch fire soon, but as it works up to it the subtle changes keep me fascinated.

I love the mixture of leaves on the Cotinus that have reached shades of orange amid many that are still summer’s deep purple.

Beauty berries have plumped up and turned bright, pearly purple, set against a backdrop of dwarf heavenly bamboo. What a show!

If I had hips like Ms Rosa ‘Dortmand’, I’d be sashaying around showing them off too.

I look forward to the day when I can divide Panicum ‘Heavy Metal’ and his nearby sister, ‘Shenandoah’ so their late-season seedheads can create a haze against the dark trees in the background. That’s what keeps us going, isn’t it? Visions of joys to come.

Speaking of seedheads, these tall wands of bronze beads catch the light in such a way that they must remain standing, even though it means much groveling to eradicate the gazillions of progeny.

Failure to deadhead the tree peony ‘Gold Sovereign’ led to this. I think I may embrace sloth as a general gardening technique.

Joe Pye continues to endear himself. Who dared to call him a weed?

The light shining through Cryptomerica japonica ‘Sekkan Sugi’ gives you some idea of how we prize it for the bright spot it provides through the darkest days of winter.

The mix of different sweet potato vines planted in a pot creates a nice tapestry.

This shot is all about texture, and foliage that will stay looking good on into the winter months. That ground cover is Rubus pantalobus ‘Creeping Berry’, and I can’t say enough good things about it. It has really covered ground, keeps the weeds out, and provides a deep green textural background for bright companions like this Verbascum.

Here’s another groundcover that I like a lot. My wintergreen was getting overshadowed by other stuff, so I dug it up and transplanted about five plants. Only one has survived and is looking great and spreading…go figure. This shot is sort of out-of-focus, but I find that I like the effect. Apologies to all real photographers.

Usually Pam over at Digging hosts a gathering of bloggers talking about foliage on the 16th of each month, the day after Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. I don’t see it happening there today, but her blog is always worth visiting, no matter what she has up her sleeve.

All of Dymaxicon’s writers were there: from left to right, Chris, Hillary, me, Larry, Nancy and Lilly. Over the course of two days, we got to know one another and it began to feel like a family.

By backing up a little bit, you can see our booth, with all of our books on display. With seven stages all going at once, featuring readings, panel discussions and conversations, plus an exhibit hall full of booths, no two people attending Wordstock were apt to have the same experience. Portland is a very bookish place, so there were plenty of local writers. More surprising was the number of big names like Pulitzer winners Isabel Wilkerson and Jennifer Egan and best selling author of The English Patient Michael Ondaatje. Lesser luminaries and stars of the future rubbed elbows with students, publishers…basically anyone engaging in a love affair with words. Saturday evening, we all trooped over to the Aladdin Theater to watch the Live Wire radio show being taped. My favorite part of their manifesto reads: “We believe that ‘funny’ and ‘culturally relevant’ aren’t mutually exclusive.” They put that into practice by incorporating many of Wordstock’s authors into a highly entertaining evening. The shows, taped in Portland, can be heard on public broadcasting stations around the country.

Not far from the convention center, on East Burnside, is the Jupiter Hotel. A funky old motel from the ’50’s has been remodeled into a stylish place to lay your head, or, in our case, to gather to rehash the weekend, tipple and tell stories in the bar/restaurant, the Doug Fir.

I had been scoping out E Burnside the week before, so when the question “where shall we go after?” arose, I actually had an answer. It was late, and a bit rainy to enjoy the wonderful outdoor space, but gathering around the fireplace in the lounge served us well. Roll-around tables and seating could be reconfigured to our liking. Now, since this is purported to be more of a garden-centric blog, I will leave the word stuff and take you back a week to my prowl around Burnside.

Formerly a down-at-the-heels area, considerable work has gone into upgrading. These bioswales occupy several corners between traffic and pedestrians.

I especially like the metal domes protecting the drains.

Formerly derelict buildings have been reclaimed to house little boutiques, vintage resale, galleries and restaurants.

…and in the next block, more of the same. Across the street from these is the Jupiter.

I went around the block to get headed in the right direction and came across this bicycle shop with personality.

In the next block, this radio station was not to be outdone.

I parked the car to get pictures of the murals, and that was when I spied the back alley of the Jupiter, where guests can enjoy bamboo-lined patios.

Or lunch on a fine day, far from the traffic and noise of busy streets.

No naked hippies…just book lovers, book writers, book publishers and all of the above in fascinating combinations for your entertainment and edification. Dymaxicon will have a booth, where I will be signing books most of the weekend. If you already have a book that you would like me to sign, bring it on in…or pick up one or three at the event (they will make great stocking stuffers, if I can get away with mentioning the yule tide at this early date). Visit the official Wordstock web site for schedules and snippets from various authors.

Can’t make it? I will try to give you a rundown of the highlights after the fact. You can always purchase BeBop here

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Oh, and be sure to say “Hi!” if you make it to the Convention Center this weekend. I would love to chat plants…and books…with you!

In case you didn’t know, I wrote a book about getting bitten by the gardening bug and the revelations and little observations that came with that new pastime (some might call it an obsession).

You can order one at the sneak preview price by clicking here. Or, if you just want to know “Why the goofy title?”, the first few paragraphs tell that story, and are included on the order page.

A couple of blogging buddies have written reviews. To read what they have to say, go to Danger Garden and Gardening With Grace. If you haven’t already discovered these two excellent gardener/writers, you are in for a treat when you browse through their blogs.

Please let me know if you would like to be in the loop for notifications of related events like readings, signings, etc. Just leave a comment here, including your email address. I promise not to bombard you with missives…just the occasional update when something new happens.

We wait, and we watch, and we even name some of the tomatoes, as they seem to be as slow to develop as a human child.

Think that sounds crazy? Meet Estelle, a tomato with not only personality, but, um… attitude.

And then, all of a sudden, we are bombarded with an avalanche of tomatoes…among other things. Today was spent putting up tomato sauce, with Norah Jones on the stereo and anticipation of opening a jar of summer deep in January. But the first, the juiciest, the most perfect of the early (all things are relative) arrivals was ceremoniously made into BLT’s. The base was Dave’s Killer Bread, lightly toasted. I must indulge in an aside about this bread,made by an ex-con who puts his story on every package, along with the slogan: “Just say NO to BREAD ON DRUGS”. Slather Dave’s “Powerseed” with Best Food’s Real Mayonnaise and pile on thick slabs of home-grown tomato, pepper bacon from the butcher shop, fried until crispy, and a generous pile of lettuce. We wait all year for this, and, in my book, it beats out turkey at Thanksgiving, or any other seasonal treat you can dream up.

Visit Wendy for the Garden to Table Challenge to see what others are doing with the season’s bounty.

Stachyrus praecox blushing prettily…ahead of the game in the march toward fall color.

with the Katsura tree not far behind.

The Eucalyptus tree sheds leaves on a regular basis, but not before they turn this lovely pinkish color. I gather them up and spread them on paths.

Even better than the blossoms (except to the bees) of the Joe Pye Weed are these sturdy pink stems holding vigorous whorls of leaves.

The plummy hips of Rosa glauca have yielded a few new starts, so I will now be able to plant some that I can cut back hard to enjoy that fabulous blue/blush foliage. All things come to she who waits, right?

And speaking of waiting, the Berberis jamesiana, which I planted in 2007, is finally beginning to produce the waxy, pale yellow berries (drupes?) that got my attention at Dancing Oaks Nursery.

Now that you have had a peek at my foliage favorites, you might as well visit Pam to see what she and her other followers have in store for you.

Campsis x tagliabuena ‘Madame Galen’

Echinops banaticus ‘Blue Glow’

‘Blue Glow’ in bud

‘Blue Glow’ eaten by gophers…guess they didn’t find it tasty: they did this to one and left the others alone.

I should perhaps used the fireworks setting on my camera to capture Solidago rugosa ‘Fireworks’.

Started from HPSO seed many years ago, this Gaura lindenhamerii was transplanted to this spot earlier this year, and is already waving its wands of butterfly-like blossoms on long, waving stems.

Rudbeckia subtomentosum ‘Henry Eilers’

Panicum ‘Heavy Metal’

Anemone ‘Honorine de Jobert’

Eupatorium maculatum (10′ tall)

Oxydendrum arboreum

So there you have my hit parade for September. I counted 66 things blooming, but how boring would that be? If you want more, or just want to engage in a little zonal envy, May
Dreams Gardens is the place.

The fall sale is always calmer than the one in the spring, but this scene at the check-out tables at around 11:30 in the morning was shocking. I have been hearing from friends in the biz that they are just hanging on. The last couple of harsh winters could be discouraging late season splurges as well.

There were quite a few plants in the holding area, but normally there would be people three deep waiting to claim their plants. When I worked in holding, we quickly ran out of designated spaces and had to improvise. I had arrived with firm resolve to resist coming home with a bunch of stuff that would need babying through the winter. I’m going to mark my weakness up to a spirit of largesse in helping to keep these growers growing. On the bright side, there were parking spaces close by (in the shade, no less) and it was easy to chat up the vendors about plants of interest.

Case in point: this fascinating flower was in a booth selling “succulents”, a frustrating generality to those of us who are drawn to this large and varied category. Let’s back up and take a look at the whole plant.

Talking to the woman who was overseeing the booth, I learned that it is a Stepelia, and that this large, blooming specimen with the $25 price tag started a year ago as a plant this size:

for a mere $4.

So on my way home I stopped by Garden Fever to pick up a pot for it. It will be overpotted, as directed, so I am expecting some of those op art flowers to show up next year. I was sure there was more to the name, so I Googled it and found several photos that looked like the very flower, but with different names: Stapelia planiflora? Stapelia lepida?. I also learned that the common name is carrion flower or starfish flower. Then I made the connection: James, over at Lost in the Landscape had written about the stench emanating from carrion flowers…oops. I didn’t notice an odor around the booth, so maybe this is a less offensive variety. Loree has a much better picture on her blog about the sale. I promise I won’t be as long-winded about the rest of my swag.

Acca sellowiana, or Pineapple Guava is Zone 6-9, but it will live in a bigger pot on the front deck until early spring.

As will Drimys lanceolata or Mountain Pepper, a Zone 7 evergreen shrub from Dancing Oaks Nursery.

The coloring on Drimys is a lot like the Madrones, with the deep red stems.

Luzula sylvatica ‘Aurea’ is billed as Zone 5, so it is going into the ground.

Saxifraga ‘Whitehill’

And finally, a little trio of proven winners, Verbascum ariaphaenum, Selaginella krausseana ‘Aurea’ and Cornus canadensis, back there in the dark.

Rooster Rock is a huge park just outside Portland in the Columbia River Gorge. I can’t believe that I have lived here most of my life and had never been there. It was not for want of trying: the place fills up pretty fast on weekends and holidays. When our friends suggested a picnic in the middle of the week it was one of those “Aha!” moments.

This is the view from our picnic spot looking down at the river (the hills rising on the other side are in the state of Washington).

Looking the other way, across the parking lot (see! no cars!). Despite temperatures in the mid-nineties, we had the place nearly to ourselves except for a gaggle of nude sunbathers and the odd dog walker. For a truly scenic outing, one can take the old Columbia River Highway that winds past a number of waterfalls and to the top of that cliff in the distance, where there is a picturesque lookout with an incredible view of the gorge. Silly me: I failed to take a picture of the rock outcropping that gives this park its name (it looks like a giant rooster’s tail).

After a refreshing swim, we settled down, with our wine and all sorts of good things to eat, to watch the sunset.

It just got better and better,

The haze from nearby forest fires does wonderful things for sunsets…reminds me of sunsets seen from Griffith Park in Los Angeles when I lived there in the 60’s. A guilty pleasure, but it is beautiful.