Firecracker Flower Bulbs

Pink Diamond Firecracker Flowers.
Scored these fall-planted bulbs on my recent trip to Oregon.

A million bucks would fit neatly into my plans. Even a thousand dollars would make life grand. Because then I'd have no difficulty budgeting for life's basic necessities.

Like the new bulb garden.

Which is Phase 2 of the entirely new perennial garden. The one I planted this year and then, for some odd reason, forgot to blog about it! I didn't blog about a lot of stuff this summer. Too many other things weighing heavily on my mind.

Onward and upward. This super spectacular new strip of... well, I'm not quite sure, it's not done yet... is the first thing folks see when they drive by the house.

So, I was hoping I could have it looking all wild and crazy from the moment the snow melts in early springtime.

Fireworks Allium

If the weather holds, I plan to squeeze all sorts of goodies into this new garden, a 45 foot by 6 foot area that used to be called a ditch. First up: Allium bulbs!

Alliums, if you haven't met them, are a country gardener's best friend. Critters, deer, pretty much all quadrupeds think these onion bulbs aren't worth eating.

My Bulb Booty (top to bottom pictures:)

• Pink Diamond Firecracker Flowers, Dichelostemma, USDA zones 5-9
• Azure Allium, Allium caeruleum, USDA zones 3-8
• Fireworks Allium, Allium cernuum, USDA zones 4-9
• Mountain Bells, Allium oreophilum, USDA zones 3-8

* If you're wondering why these photos look so bad it's because I scanned them off the bulb packages. I can't exactly photograph them since they haven't bloomed yet! :))

Truth About Life: Part Two

Things I'm certain are true ~ part 2! While the grass may not be greener on the other side of my fence, it is most definitely greener in Oregon.

Which is why, every September, this desert rat needs an Oregon fix.

Right after I have my annual breakdown.

Oh.... it's not a seriously crazy breakdown. Just a desperate desire to partake of some normal weather patterns.

Gotta love it: Potted vines take over the seating areas.

You see, it rains a lot in Oregon. While that might make Oregonians a little depressed, it is precisely what I'm looking for!

Honeysuckles climb the porch pillars at the Wine Country Inn.

Summer weather in my high plains desert is bright and sunny, hot and dry. Day in... day out... After about 4 hard gardening months of that business I'm ready to see how the other half lives.

And, that's when we skedaddle ~ to Oregon.

A wisp of fog hangs over the entrance to our inn.

From Joan's back porch we inspect the gardens and grape vines.

If you're in the mood for greener pastures, it doesn't get much greener than the Dundee Hills of Oregon.

The Truth About Life: Part One!

Things I am FAIRLY certain are true:
Where Blue Hydrangeas happily bloom, Shangri-La is right around the corner.

Blue Hydrangeas grow wild in Netarts, Oregon (aka Shangri-La.)

There's this thing. It's called a resume.

I have one. In fact! I have several.

These resumes seem to work fairly well ~ for tiresome jobs such as being a strategic planner (la dee dah...) or a marketing consultant (zzzzzzzzzz!)

My last 'travel for work' experience, however, was getting paid to garden. (Hey!)

Netarts, Oregon is my secret escape every September. People think it rains all the time in Oregon. and they're right 11 months out of the year. It does not, however, rain in September.

Getting paid to garden didn't exactly work out as planned:

• I pulled a weed; the house fell down.
• I didn't get paid.
• Had I gotten paid it wouldn't have mattered. I did the sad math and discovered I would have had to work a half year to earn the weekly salary of a marketing consultant.

Which got me thinking about when daughter L and I moved to Utah. I was driving a U-Haul and listening to a cassette tape entitled: Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow.

I was so excited. I kept thinking: How much money??? When's it gonna get here???

Look off to that coastline and you can see secret cabin #9

We all know the end to that story, don't we?

So I do not, as yet, have a 'gardening resume.' But stranger things have happened. I remain undaunted, unpaid, though not the slightest bit unhappy.

There was a grand upside to hitting rock bottom. After I dropped Bad Dog off at home I continued west to the glorious coast of Oregon. Where Hydrangeas bloom a delicious blue [as opposed to radioactive pink in my alkaline soil.]

Where the sea air is fresh, clean and filled with promise.

And, all is right with the world...

* Hidden Object Search! Get out the magnifying glass and look close at this photo. You can find me hoisting a glass of wine in one of my favorite vacation spots: Happy Camp Hideaway, Cabin #9, Netarts, Oregon Coast

Mighty, Mighty Jimmy and The Legacy Trees

On the road to the South Pasture.

Meet the Mighty, Mighty Jimmy. Hazel's 1969 GMC Pick-Up.

Hazelnut likes to call her ancient pick-up the dude magnet because every time she fires up Jimmy and drives him into town some well-meaning fellow asks if Jim is for sale.

Bad Dog thinks Hazel is cool because she lets him ride in the back of her pick-up. Such shenanigans are okay out here but a blinky no-no anywhere one drives faster than 15 mph. (So sayeth Bad Dog's human.)

The nerve of those guys ~ lumping The Mighty, Mighty Jimmy into an impersonal category of buy 'em, sell 'em cars.

He is soooo much more than that. Hazel's Dad bought Jim way back when she was knee-high to the truck bumpers. He's an important part of the family.

Plus, he's the only guy that can reliably transport us yahoos into the remote outback of Western South Dakota. (When the going got tough, we parked my Ford Explorer by the side of the road.)

Hazel lives in rough and tumble cattle country where tall prairie grasses wave back and forth in a hypnotic pattern, very similar to ocean waves.

This important road trip was an inspection of her back-breaking labor earlier this summer.

When she planted 300 native trees in the sheltered areas of this wild land she inherited from Mom and Dad.


Think it's hard to make a living as a human?

Try life as a deer or an antelope. They don't exactly play out here.

They spend the better part of their day searching for water and protection for raising their young.

That photo above is a few of Hazelnut's 300 tree seedlings. They don't look like much right now but just you wait a few years.

As these seedlings grow, Hazel's trees will provide a safe haven for animals, a legacy to her family, and an essential windbreak to thwart the top soil erosion that plagues this part of the country.

Jimmy keeps a watchful eye on Billy & Lori

So, that's the news from Western South Dakota as I make my way through the hinter lands, back home after what I was originally boasting to be my 'Still Can't Believe I'm Getting Paid for Gardening' vacation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Update: Things didn't exactly work out as planned. I did not get paid. In fact! I sort of got fired.

You see, the foundation collapsed on my brother's house. Now, I highly doubt I'm such a curse that my showing up in town (after I swore I never would again) caused the old gal to give up the ghost. But ya never know...

Perhaps this old house, where I was born and raised, entertained the notion of a landscaping face lift, rolled her eyes and called it a permanent day. Or, maybe she just doesn't like me.

Whatever the case, here is the trouble I caused ~ the collapsed basement of my brother's home:

East River

My Evening Retreat, John's Lake

The next stop on my Still Can't Believe I'm Getting Paid for Gardening vacation took me to a quiet little lake cabin, East River.

The term, East River, makes no sense. Unless, of course, you were unfortunate enough to be born and raised in South Dakota, where the mighty Missouri River neatly slices this state in half.

Moonflowers bloom ecstatically near the lake. Opening as the sun begins to set, flowers reflect moonlight until the sun rises when they close up for the day.

'West River' is cattle country ~ a hard scrabble existence, with dry, desert conditions and more rattlesnakes than people.

'East River' is lush, green, laden with soft, nutrient-rich garden soil that sometimes makes me wonder why in the world I ever chose to move farther west.

Blossoms bigger than your head: Hibiscus flowers easily east of the Missouri River. In my home state of Utah, they require 'round the clock care. (And they're still not happy!)

Interestingly enough, it was West River South Dakotans who coined the term East River as a derogatory label for us 'softies.' (We East River folks label them: jealous.)

So, I landed in the place that I called home for the formative years of my life. And, our first task was the saddest one of all.

Taking down the old cabin that stood forever on my parent's property. It was a fully functional teeny, tiny house that had been there for ages and had finally decided it was time to fall down.

Bye-Bye Cabin.

If this place could talk, oh the stories it would tell. Over these long years 'The Cabin' served as temporary housing [aka free lodging] for many a wayward 20-something and friends down on their luck. A silent cave where my Father read entire libraries of books.

For me, it was a giant playhouse. With room enough for all my friends and most of their Barbies, too.
Early mornings, John's Lake. (You'll just have to imagine me in this shot because I couldn't figure out how to set the camera timer.)

Kit Cats and Migrating Monarchs

Met this impressive Monarch Butterfly in Hazel's Zinnia Garden. Her wing span was enormous.

Migrating Monarch Butterfly snacking on the Zinnias

Ten days ago I filled my car with the tools of the trade, squeezed Bad Dog into the passengers seat and off we went on my first ever working vacation.

'Been a long time coming... But, some silly fool [that would be my brother] finally agreed to PAY ME to do a landscaping project!

It's a 2 day, hellishly dull drive to my hometown of Wide Spot In The Road, South Dakota.

Lucky for me, I have a good friend who lives half way between Here and No Where.

I just love to visit her gardens because she grows a lot of annuals ~ gorgeous, true blue Morning Glories...

And an all time favorite: Zinnias!

Bright, happy colors, easily grown by seed in a summer garden. Why don't I do this??? Next year... maybe next year.

Strolling Hazel's gardens, we're stalked by the most precious of predators.

They look a little worried because big old Bad Dog is standing right behind me and my camera. BD is scared of kitties though it took them a few minutes to figure that out.

Messy birds planted this Sunflower Garden that stretches 10 feet into the sky. (Can you spot the half moon peering down upon us?)

Zinnias make a delightful dinner for migrating Butterflies.

Last but not least. Meet Cookie. Isn't she the cutest little thing you've ever seen?

My Favorite 'Coming Attraction' ~ Autumn Joy

Of all the perennials in my garden, Sedum is the one that truly deserves the title, 'Coming Attractions.'
That's because this big, beautiful, drought-tolerant, sun-worshiping succulent teases me for months on end.

She grows ever-so-slowly throughout the season.
Providing nary a hint of what's to come.
Pale green leaves make a nice backdrop to summer flowers.

Sedum patiently waits for a cool, crisp morning, just like this one. Because she's not trying to please you, she's much more interested in feeding the migrating butterflies and busy, little bees.

Sedum Autumn Joy has a great personality, changing colors as she blooms. This plant (photo above) is the same plant as photo below, shot 4 weeks later.

Right about the time I've forgotten all about her, I step outside, with my morning coffee and see a brightly blooming bush. Or, 2 or 3, or 4... Since every time it's in bloom I hightail it to the nursery to buy another one!

There are 400 varieties of perennial Sedum. I'd list them here, but I don't want to get carpal tunnel. Sedum 'Autumn Joy' is best known and most popular. The flower heads change color throughout the season, just like our favorite trees, ending up a rich, rusty brown.

Sedum Autumn Joy: Purchase this fall bloomer from Home Depot or other discount shop. They are such easy-care perennials, it's not worth the expense of specialty nurseries.

I love the succession of colors ~ buds have a hint of pale pink, blooms are deep, rich reds and pinks. The copper and browns of spent blooms look lovely in the freshly fallen snow. USDA zones 3-10.