Native Plant Appreciation Week

In honor of Native Plant Appreciation Week here are a few natives in my garden:



Inside-Out Flower. I believe I need to relocate this one since it is getting too much sun and prefers more shade.

Common Yarrow

Fringecup

Baby bird

We found a fledgling Western Scrub Jay in our backyard this weekend. It landed in the chicken coop area and later went under the fence to the neighbor's yard. Its parents sure were squawking up a storm.

Sustainable kids' meal 'toy'

So we went to Burgerville for lunch yesterday. Burgerville is a northwest chain that prides itself on sustainability and using local ingredients, like hazelnuts, berries and Walla Walla onions. I am fond of their white bean and basil burger. The kids meals always come with something a little more interesting than the standard plastic toy, for instance, this time of year their meals come with a seed packet. Our boys ended up with sunflowers and purple basil. Once we got home they started planting.

He loved touching and comparing the colors and sizes of the seeds.

And to top it off the seed packet states a double whammy on the back. The packaging is "made from 100% pre and post consumer recycled paper printed with soy-based inks" and the "seeds are heirloom (non-GMO), open pollinated and are not processed or treated with any chemicals."  Very cool!

Pink

I guess I just can't get enough of the pink blooms.

Time for this volcano to erupt

We added the red and orange lava today and then my husband brought the dry ice home and the kids instantly became excited. It's a good idea not to buy it too far in advance. He said he lost half of the volume of the dry ice since buying it at lunchtime, even though he kept it in the freezer at work. And remember to add hot water rather than cool water for a bigger eruption.

 

 

 

 

And if you have extra dry ice left over you can try some fun experiments. If you coat the rim of the bowl with dish soap and then run a soapy cloth or paper napkin across the top a gassy bubble will form. When it finally pops, the smoke flows out over the edge of the bowl.

Count down to a volcano cake eruption

It's amazing the things you can find on YouTube. My kids constantly find things to amuse themselves such as funny cat videos and the EvanTube channel, showcasing all of the latest Angry Bird toys. They are also fascinated with videos of people showing how to make different cakes and cupcakes. Nerdy Nummies is a great channel to check out. My youngest has had one cake on his mind for the last 3 months. It is a smoking volcano cake that he saw on a tutorial by MyCupcakeAddiction. This cake is all he has been talking about. So we finally got to it. We used two round cake layers and one bundt cake instead of the giant cupcake mold that was used in the tutorial, but I think it will work. Today we will add the lava and hopefully the dry ice for an explosive finish.

Happy Earth Day!

The grassy area of our front yard has become mostly a weedy area. On Sunday I started weeding it out by hand. I only had the energy to tackle one little area. I'm guessing it will take many more days to accomplish the task. Then we can top dress and seed. I'm trying to get out as much of the roots as possible. It's probably a temporary solution to a major problem, buried deep in the whole area, but I guess we will just do what we can for now.

Weekend plantings

The weather on Easter Sunday was great for getting back out into the garden. I potted some little container garden plants I had bought early last week. I really love the stamp on this clay pot.

Indoor egg roll for preschoolers

After volunteering to bring a game to my son's Easter party at preschool, I realized I don't really know many good Easter party games. After doing a little web searching I found that pin the tail on the bunny and carrying hard boiled eggs on spoons are both very popular. I also remembered that in the past we had made a mini-ski ball game to play at home out of ping pong balls, a cardboard box and an egg carton. Since my son's game time was going to be held indoors, I made an indoor version of the ski ball game, but this time with plastic eggs and a ramp covered with grassy-looking scrapbook paper. The ramp is another piece of cardboard that I taped to the top edge of the box. Have a Happy Hoppy Easter!

Lovely lilacs

This is the first year in the ground for a Esther Staley lilac I purchased 3 years ago from the Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens in Woodland, Wash. At the time that I bought it, I was told to keep it in the pot for 2 years before planting. My neighbors all have long-established lilacs that I can smell from almost everywhere in my backyard.

Busy weekend

It was a busy weekend. Hopefully you got to play around in the garden. I didn't but I did get to check out the grand opening of a new quilt shop, Bolts to Blocks, in downtown Albany, and I also happened upon a wonderful plant sale at a downtown residence. I then took a paper collage class from local artist Anna Tewes. Anna collects decorative handmade papers from around the world and she is one of the participating artists in the new Gallery Calapooia downtown. Unfortunately I am having trouble posting photos at the moment so I can't show you the collage I made. Maybe later.

Oregon Arbor Week

Oregon Arbor Week is the first week of April. In 2014 it runs April 7-13. I checked out the Arbor Day website at www.arborday.org/Oregon to find out that as of April 2013, Albany has been a Tree City for 19 years. The site has many links to further resources and gives suggestions for celebrating Arbor Week in your city. One of the suggestions was to document your favorite trees. Here are a couple of my favorites. As you can see right now there is an explosion of pink in the Albany Historic District.

Below: Above and to the left of this tree is a pink flowering Dogwood that I think will be in full bloom just in time for Easter.

Blooms in waiting

I am looking forward to seeing the first blooms on these two new plants in my garden. Sedum Autumn Joy and Penstemon Riding Hood Red.

Imagination play

Some awesome imagination was taking place out in the sandbox. In addition to the skates and sting rays staking their claim to the sand mountain, there were also alligators and sharks roaming about below in rivers and moats.

Spring in the Albany Historic District

Here is a mini tour of spring in the Albany Historic District. The flowering trees really are starting to pop out all over the neighborhood.

Fresh soil for a new start

Time to get to work. We had 3 yards of soil and 1 yard of compost delivered two weeks ago. The soil in our garden wasn't looking so good so I thought we needed an update. It's strange how when you live in a house that was built around 1945, with multiple residents over the years, you start to notice bits of strange things pop up every now and then from the ground, like bits of ceramic plates and glass. Plus, I had the crazy idea to try and compost some of those clear compostable cups a couple years ago and they still haven't broken down. Their shredded pieces were still hanging around in our compost. So we replaced the soil and now we are ready to garden. I have a row of Walla Walla onion starts down at the end of the garden so far and some peas waiting to sprout.

I also have a geranium waiting to be potted. I have a hard time passing by geraniums.

Fun in the Forest

The Enchanted Forest is quite an interesting place to visit in Oregon. It's an old amusement park that was built with lots of love and care. There are storybook scenes for children to explore in the forest and fun amusement rides. This is a cave for the kids to explore. The walls are manufactured but the moss and ferns are all real.

Wishing it were sunny today

Here is another photo from a trip to the Portland riverfront at the end of March. On this day the sun was shining and the park was full of people - all taking pictures of the cherry blossoms.

Tulips and bunnies, Oh my!

Tulips and flowering trees are now in bloom. I pointed this front yard out to my two boys while on a walk in our neighborhood today. They like the bunnies and the colorful tulips.

Spring Brings the Cherry Blossoms

The cherry blossoms were in bloom at the end of March. Here are some from the Portland riverfront.