Year in Review: 2024

January 01, 2025

Yikes - in January we had the mother of all ice storms. It’s a good thing I dig up my dahlia bulbs each fall, because I don’t think they would have made it. The moss on our stone work has really exploded this winter! Funny enough, after all the bunny sightings last year, I didn’t see a single bunny this year in our garden.

It was a fairly warm spring and the mild summer made for a super successful year for our apple trees and veggies. Our mason bees emerged mid-March, and we discovered dragonfly nymphs in our pond after it was installed just last summer. I even got photos of some of the first dragonfly species to emerge from our ponds! We added 5 more rose varieties this spring and expanded our rose garden.

With the passing of another year in our garden, we implemented a few more ‘edits’... namely adding a few gravel pathways to help navigate the garden, relocating a couple raised beds, and replacing the last remaining ornamental shrubs with native plants.

It was a great year and I can’t wait for next season!

Tomatoes 2024

December 04, 2024

Tomatoes (swoon) are my favorite edible to grow. This year I replaced a few varieties I usually grow with a couple new ones to try. I start all my seeds in January, which works for me in Portland, since I like for my tomatoes to get nice and strong and a foot high when I transplant them in the garden in May. I sow inside and eventually promote the little plants to my greenhouse, where they are up-potted for another few months before transplant.

This year's varieties:

Kellogg’s Breakfast - I ** new this year!
Indigo Cherry Drops - I ** new this year!
Oregon Cherry (OSU) - D
Costoluto Fiorentino - I - H
Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye - I
Buffalosun - I
Ananas Noire - I

Feb 20 - after first op-potting of seedlings

I used many of my tomatos to can some tasty bruschetta in a jar

This Pink Berkley Tie-Dye tomato (above) was bigger than my hand and weighed over 1.5 lbs on its own!

Making salsa…

Our Dragonfly Nursery

November 22, 2024

In July 2023, we had a wildlife pond added to our backyard habitat wanted to encourage more Odonata visitors. Just a few weeks after it was finished, we watched Shadow Darners laying eggs in the new pond! The very next season (2024), we spotted several nymphs, a few different species emerging from both our pond and waterfall, and more adults stoping by to oviposit new clutches of eggs at our ponds.

Sep 2024 - a Shadow Darner ovipositing at our pond

Aug 2024 - a Flame Skimmer emerging from our pond

As our backyard habitat has matured, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of wildlife species that stop by or call our garden home. As a naturalist, I consider dragonflies one of my specialties, and when not at home we are usually traveling Oregon to find and photograph as many species as possible. Check out my gallery on Odonata to see some of the stellar photos we’ve captured.

Year in Review: 2023

January 01, 2024

We had four mature native trees planted in January and we’ve enjoyed seeing them change throughout the year. It stayed fairly cold well into April, which meant a bit of a late start for some plants and pollinators emerging. But it’s way better than the snowmageddon last April that zapped so many things!

Funny enough, this year was the year of the rabbit! And in the spring, little bunnies wreaked havoc on our roses and dahlias, which prompted us to put up some fencing around those beds to give the plants a chance.

We had a pond installed in July, specifically to attract dragonflies. And just a few weeks after, we witnessed Shadow Darners laying eggs in our new pond!

I completed the OSU Master Naturalist program this year and worked to become a volunteer with Portland Audubon to support the Backyard Habitat Certification Program as a site certifier.

Our garden was also featured heavily in this video by our city: Backyard Habitats - Carbon Responsible Community Development - Tigard, Oregon (2023)

New Pond

September 22, 2023 in Remodels

As our backyard habitat has matured, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of wildlife species that stop by or call our garden home. As a naturalist, dragonflies are my biggest passion and when not at home we are usually traveling Oregon to find and photograph as many species as possible. We wanted to enhance our own backyard habitat to encourage more Odonata visitors, so in July 2023, we worked with Eureka Falls again, this time to install a wildlife pond. :D

And… just a few weeks after it was finished, we watched Shadow Darners laying eggs in the new pond!

Before - we needed to relocate a Douglas Fir and several native plants

Once compete, we visited Hughes Water Gardens and purchased aquatic plants all native to the Willamette Valley ecoregion.

Bird Buddy

April 15, 2023

Late 2022, we received three Bird Buddy feeders to place around our garden. Newly released, these AI-powered camera feeders capture photos of the visitors, and we can get a nice close-up look! Below are a dozen gems, but we receive new pics every day. We even experimented with our 3d printer and various designs to extend the perching surface for visitors.

Year in Review: 2022

January 01, 2023

With two years of gardening experience in our new home in Portland, I’ve had the opportunity to see a couple of seasons play through and looked forward to honing my skills in year 3! We had a waterfall installed over the winter, which really boosted the number of backyard birds - they love to bathe, drink and play!

We had snow. In April. In Portland. What the heck? This late arrival stunned many plants and prevented them from blooming this year, including all of our kiwi vines, the honeycrisp apple tree and even our huge jasmine.

Even with the late snow, this was a very productive year in the garden. Our tomatoes did outstanding and it was such joy to see numerous other things grow from seed to harvest.

I also began the OSU Master Gardener program this year and our garden was part of the Certified Backyard Habitat tour.

Garlic 2022

September 23, 2022 in Veggies

Garlic might be my very favorite thing to grow! I sow in October and harvest the following summer, providing 9 months of growth and interest throughout the year. It’s as ‘set it and forget it’ a crop as you can get. This year I planted even more than last, close to 100 bulbs.

This year’s varieties

Purple Glazer
Premium Northern White
Mt. Hood
Elephant Garlic (not true garlic, but still!)

Some folks harvest the scapes once they’ve formed, which are yummy and allow the plant to put a little more energy into a slightly bigger bulb. However, I leave most of my scapes as the bees absolutely love the flowers!

February - grown enough to remove the protective cover and leaf mulch.

May - finally starting to produce scapes! It’s a few weeks behind from last year’s timeline, which might be due to our late snow this year.

Tomatoes 2022

September 22, 2022 in Veggies

Tomatoes (swoon). This year I planted 10 varieties, half of which were in my lineup last year. I started all my seeds in January, which may seem early to some, but it works for me in Portland. I like for my tomatoes to get nice and strong and a foot high when I transplant them in the garden late spring. I start them inside, then move them to the greenhouse where they are lovingly potted up every few weeks.

This year's varieties:

Ananas Noire
Pineapple
Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye
Gold Nugget
Green Zebra
Oregon Cherry
Costoluto Fiorentino
Oregon Star
Banana Legs
Oregon Spring

January - Tomato seedlings are going strong, just two weeks after sow date.

March - things are lookin’ good in the greenhouse.

April 30 - I went for it! I planted some of my tomato starts.

Moving tomatoes to the garden in Portland is a risky business. Late May is usually the target. But this year I went for it in April! (for half of them)

My husband is an engineer who a couple years ago built a garden sensor station and app that collects info on soil temp, air temp, light, etc. It may still be cool in Portland, but this time last year my tomatoes were in the ground with night temps the same they are now and soil temps only a few degrees cooler. Knowing those details about our precise space nudged me to plant one set late April - because last year the tomatoes did great, even in spite of the heat bubble. But I did wait until mid-May to transplant the rest in the garden.

Okay, so I’m a little nuts. I had 29 tomato plants this year. 😬 Next year I’ve promised myself I’ll have no more than a dozen. (We’ll see) But this year I started 10 different varieties from seed, half I love and half new to me. So it was a bit of an experiment. I put one of each variety in 5 gallon grow bags and the rest were in raised beds. They were all promoted to the garden gradually since late April, and are in different locations. All an experiment with timing and temps after the crazy weather this spring. -BUT- by early June I had tomatoes forming on nearly half of my plants. 🤩

Snow in April?!

April 11, 2022

April 11, 2022 - ❄️ Um, what? It snowed last night and is forecasted to snow for the next three days. In Portland. In April. My plants are so confused! I suited up at 6am and ventured into the garden… I jiggled all of my fruit trees/vines/bushes and the roses to relieve them of snow. These plants were not expecting the heavy pressure on their new and tender leaves. 🥶 Fingers crossed these plants bounce back after this week and still have a productive year. I feel so badly for the bees that started waking up to spring - hopefully they found a warm burrow. 🐝

UPDATE (Sep ‘22): This snow had a profound effect on the garden this year. This late arrival stunned many plants whose tender buds were just forming and prevented them from blooming this year, including all of our kiwi vines and the honeycrisp apple tree. Only the jonagold apple bloomed and fruited, and the jasmine and clematis, which usually bloom in April, delayed flowering by two whole months.

Year in Review: 2021

January 01, 2022

This was the first year with our new hardscape, greenhouse, and double the area of raised beds! We began to see all the natives we planted over winter begin to bloom and take-off, as well as integrate many more flowers to feed the pollinators. :) But this year was hard. Portland broke temperature records with both a crazy freeze in February and the heat bubble in June/July. Both of these extremes put our plants, even natives, through a serious test. Annual crops that did amazing last year were stunted with the heat bubble and did not finish growing or produce. Some annuals still seemed to thrive (still with attentive watering), such as our sunflowers, tomatoes and lemon cucumbers. But most everything else suffered.

Our critters had a great time this year with all the new beds and more flowers. The chipmunks harvested all the snap peas and a number of cherry tomatoes. The squirrels harvested a ton of sunflower heads. And the finches had the best time at the ‘salad bar’, feasting on sunflower leaves and swiss chard.

This was also my first year canning — and I preserved a number of tasty things from the garden.

New Water Features

October 21, 2021 in Remodels

Behold! Two new finished projects that make our certified backyard habitat even more amazing. Eureka Falls helped us out… they dug a trench and built a rocky river bed to help with water flow and runoff ahead of another rainy season. They also built an amazing cascading waterfall and left room for me to add native plants all around. After the work wrapped up, I spent a couple hours in the garden planting and cleaning up and the sound of the water was such a joy!

Canning 2021

September 03, 2021

This year was my first adventure in canning. I'm still new to canning but making my own jam and salsa tastes measurably different and delicious than anything I've ever bought off the shelf. And it's a great confidence boost. :)

I made 10 deliciously different things, most with produce right from our own garden! I had a lot of fun harvesting what I'd grown from seed, designing cute labels and especially making salsas and jams. Before the pandemic, I wasn't able to do any of these things - look at me now!

**Oregarden Salsa** - I made salsa using another 8 cups of gorgeous tomatoes from the garden! All 7 varieties I've grown this year made their way into the salsa, as well as bell peppers and garlic I've all grown from seed.

**Oregarden Sunshine Salsa** - I used a huge tomato harvest to make salsa! All of the gold nugget tomatoes and roasted corn gave it a really bright and sweet flavor. It's addictive!

**Blackberry Jam** - We bought a gorgeous half flat of blackberries from the farmers market in August, which I turned into delectable jam. Since I started canning this year, my husband has been waiting patiently for blackberry season... because this jam is his favorite!

**Oregarden Bruschetta** - I canned bruschetta in a jar! 🍅 I used homegrown garlic and another 10 cups of gorgeous tomatoes from the garden as the base for this freshalicious baguette topping (slurp)

**Oregarden Green Chutney** - I used 7 cups of chopped green tomatoes from the garden to make yummy green tomato chutney! I even included garlic and green jalapeños I grew in the garden and the last of my neighbor's pears.

**Oregarden Tomato Jam** - used 4 lbs of tomatoes from the garden to make tomato jam! The saigon cinnamon and freshly grated ginger give it a nice spice to balance the sweetness.

**Spiced Pear Butter** - Our neighbor has a mature pear tree that dumps a thousand pears every year. We helped relieve the tree of some weight and brought home a giant case of pears...

**Vanilla Strawberry Jam** - using a flat of Mt Hood strawberries and whole vanilla beans

**Oregarden Pickled Garlic Scapes** - I pickled the garlic scapes I harvested from the garden

**Marionberry Jam** - picked up a full flat from a local farmer - it's soooooo yummy!

Backyard Certification

May 28, 2021 in Remodels

We are so excited to announce that as of May 2021, we are officially a Certified Backyard Habitat by the Portland Audobon Society! 🥂 🐝🦉🌿

Our journey started a year prior with the consultation and a self-determined deep dive into pnw plant education. Since then we made substantial changes to our backyard space, removed the lawn, planted literally hundreds of natives, added sustainable habitats for pollinators and more. We are so proud of all the work we've accomplished, but more thrilled to add a safe space to this planet for the bees/birds/bugs/critters that share our slice of Oregon.

There are 3 levels of certification: Silver, Gold and Platinum. We achieved Gold for this certification, but our native areas are nearing the 50% needed for Platinum, so we're gonna keep at it and hope to recertify next year. Yay, Oregarden! You did it!

Our garden is working toward Platinum level certification, top-tier. Which means:

Platinum Invasive Species: Remove all three levels of aggressive weeds
Native Plants: Naturescape > 50% of property with locally native plants in all 5 vegetation layers
Pesticide Reduction: No use of red or yellow zone chemicals, always use IPM strategy, take metro no pesticides pledge
Wildlife Stewardship: i.e. cats kept inside or in outdoor enclosures 100% of time, wildlife water feature, bird/bat nest boxes, pollinator habitat, nurse logs, outdoor lights off during migration, native pollinator meadow
Stormwater Management: i.e. large canopy tree over 30ft, remove impervious surfaces and/or grass more than 500ft, increase naturescaping to 10% higher than your certification level requirement, restore soils leave the leaves, eliminate lawn irrigation, adopt eco-friendly maintenance practices
Education and Volunteerism

Vegetation Layers:

Ground layer
Small/Medium shrub layer (<5ft)
Large shrub layer (5-20ft)
Understory tree canopy (<30ft)
Overstory tree canopy (>30ft)

https://backyardhabitats.org/

Year in Review: 2020

January 01, 2021

2020 was a tough year for the world. With so much sacrifice and hardship, it can be hard to find a silver lining. As a hobby baker, I spent the first month of quarantine producing countless treats for the family. But after a few weeks, my family politely asked me to direct my energy elsewhere. :) I’d always wished I had more of a green thumb and being homebound gave me the perfect opportunity to try gardening in earnest. I started with one bed, but it didn’t take long before I was hooked. Then four more beds. And a makeshift greenhouse. And then we tore out all the grass and installed our new hardscape with stone pathways and a circle of raised beds. We also began to plant natives and started the path to our backyard habitat certification. What started out as a small activity to pass the time is now an integral part of our family routine, planning and joy.

"No Lawn" Remodel

November 06, 2020 in Remodels

Grass is not green. In October 2020, we tore out all the lawn and worked with contractors to put in hardscape, including stone pathways, a circle of raised beds and a pad for my greenhouse. I had been thinking about a design for many months prior and had the idea of a donut of beds in the center of the lawn with irregular paths branching out. Our landscape designer loved the idea and produced some outstanding drawings for us.

Our intent is to fill the raised beds every year with an assortment of annuals, both veggies and flowers. And for all the land that isn’t a raised bed or hardscape to be covered in perennial native plants that will benefit the critters in our little slice of the northwest.