The Barren Wasteland

Day 265: If you've been following along for any length of time, you'll have heard me talk about the Barren Wasteland, the ten-foot wide strip between the south wall of my house and the north wall of my garage. In the first few years after I moved here, all my attempts at growing veg or flowers in it failed miserably. The soil was simply too poor to support anything but the toughest grasses and other undesirables. I was on the verge of throwing in the towel when I hit on the idea of planting a wildflower mix, thinking that surely some native would take root. I'm smarter now than I was then, largely because the most successful of the species were California poppies, Ox-eye daisies and yarrow, all of which are considered "weeds" in western Washington. It's been impossible to get rid of them entirely, although they are largely overwhelmed by another success: Rudbeckia. Today, the Barren Wasteland is a riot of colour, but keeps its name in memory of my struggle to get something...anything!...to grow here.

Celebrate Gooseberries!

Day 264: The first picking of the season! Admittedly, it was only a cup once they were topped, tailed and cut in two, but the first fruits for a batch of my favourite jam are in the freezer. I don't think I'll have enough for a double batch this time around, but there are still a couple of jars left from last year. I'm surprised more people don't grow gooseberries. I suppose it's because prepping them for pie or jam is a lot of work. "Topping and tailing" means slicing off both the stem end and the blossom end with a sharp knife, a rather tedious process when you have a large number of berries. Done a few at a time (two cups at most) and on a daily basis as the fruit ripens, it's not such a bad chore. The berries can be kept frozen and processed during cooler weather, a boon for those of us who don't care to slave over a hot stove when it's 90 degrees out. The jam is tart-sweet, tangy and flavourful, and utterly delicious on homemade sourdough bread, but mind the thorns when you're harvesting. Many people wear welder's gloves when picking gooseberries, but I find that a little care and caution is all you really need. The birds will pick them if you allow them to ripen fully, so get them when they first begin to "give" when pinched gently.

Young Purple Finch

Day 263: Friends joke that my birds have me trained well. If I am working on the computer, they perch on the shepherd's-hook directly outside the window and stare at me until they get their point across: the feeder is empty, and we're hungry. If I'm sitting with my back to the window, they'll fly carefully forward so that they can flutter their wings against the glass until they've drawn my attention. And because I am so well-trained, I lay down whatever project is in my hands to go and deliver another round of black-oil sunflower seed. The Grosbeaks (especially the Black-Headed Grosbeaks) are the most likely to make demands in this way, although other species do it as well, including the Purple Finches (Carpodacus purpureus, above) are adept at it as well. I've even had a Northern Flicker communicate in this way when there was no more suet in the wire basket! The Chickadees land on the seed can (or my head) as soon as I step out the door. The Nuthatch isn't quite that brave, but often has to be told to move over so I can refill the tray. But as any good trainer knows, there must be some reward, and this is mine: little feathered friends posing for portraits, cute as they can be.

All Foliage, No Flowers

Day 262: The two readers who supplied me with seeds will undoubtedly recognize this plant from the foliage, and perhaps one of them can give me a clue as to why it comes back year after year but never blooms. It is milkweed, and until an inflorescence appears, I will be unable to confirm the exact species (presumably Asclepias syriaca). The plants appear quite healthy otherwise. The tallest is currently about 3', but of the dozen or so stalks, not a one has ever shown any inclination to flower. Nor have they ever exhibited signs of insect damage, presumably due to the absence of flowers which would attract bugs. I did not expect Monarchs, no. They are rarely found in western Washington. However, their flyway crosses eastern Washington where milkweed plants are abundant.

Caveat Emptor

Day 261: Caveat emptor: "let the buyer beware." When I first moved here over thirty years ago, I set about trying to find something which would grow in the space which later became known as the Barren Wasteland for good reason. A ten-foot wide area between the back wall of my house and the side of the garage resisted all my attempts to turn it into a vegetable garden or a flower bed, rejecting every effort I made to enrich the soil with compost, fertilizer or other amendments. Eventually, I hit upon the idea of getting a "regional" wildflower mix to broadcast in the hopes that at least one species would find the conditions acceptable and, innocent that I was, I bought a large container which claimed to be "for the northwest." Today, with a bit more experience behind me, I would have read the label more carefully. What I planted...and what had the greatest success at establishing...were what I would now call "weeds." Over the years, I've managed to get rid of most of the undesirables, but two which persist are yarrow and California poppies. The Barren Wasteland is now a riot of colour and variety, but very little of that "northwest mix" still exists, having been pulled up by the roots and disposed of without further ceremony or regret.

Rose Campion With Hoverfly

Day 260: I can't count the number of times I've seen a Park visitor freak out when a "bee" hovered in front of their face, to then be disbelieving when I try to explain that the insect in question is a hoverfly, a bee-mimic and harmless. The combination of yellow and black stripes pushes the panic button in most people, and not without good reason. This of course works in the hoverfly's favour, keeping it from being snatched up by a bird. Besides not having a stinger, hoverflies (aka "flower flies" or syrphid flies) differ in appearance from bees in several ways, most notably that they possess only one pair of wings. Bees and wasps have two. Adult Hoverflies are known to suck "honeydew" from both aphids and scale (another insect pest), and Hoverfly larvae feed primarily (and voraciously!) on aphids. "Flower flies" are important pollinators, so count yourself doubly lucky if you have syrphids such as this specimen of Eupeodes fumipennis in your garden.

A Garden Long Ago

Day 259: When in my late 20s I married for the second time, I convinced my husband to let me tear up our suburban back yard to put in a vegetable garden. Togerher, we dug the sod by hand, screened out the larger rocks and worked in some fertilizer, and at that point, he decided gardening wasn't his cup of tea, turning over the tasks of planting and weeding to me. I have to admit I wasn't as dedicated to the task of pulling weeds as I would be today, but by mid-summer, the corn was shoulder-high, the squash had spread its leaves and vines, and the bush bean plants were in flower, shading out all but the most vigorous of the undesirables. No garden is complete without a few sunflowers, and mine soon towered over me. Then as now, they were grown specifically with birds in mind, and a good thing: they were so full of earwigs that after picking one or two heads for our own enjoyment, we abandoned any idea of keeping a few for human consumption. The soil proved too rocky to grow carrots, and the radishes were riddled by worms, but shallowly rooted crops kept us in fresh veg right up to the final zucchini. But my initial foray into growing produce was short-lived. The following year, we moved. The ground at our new abode was nothing but rocks, large and small, and although I eventually coaxed a few beans from it and some potatoes from a bedding of straw, the only thing which ever did well was a slip of Greek oregano I'd been given by a neighbour. It eventually covered a patch ten feet on a side, more determined than even the prairie grass and weeds.