Good-bye Beaver Baseball

I didn't have my camera so the pictures were taken with my cellular phone. This will be the last season for the Portland Beavers Baseball Team. They have been sold and will leave our State to become someone else's favorite team. Portland is going with Soccer. So the stadium will be made into a soccer stadium and the interior has already been changed a bit as far as "Timber" Logos everywhere. It was a lovely night for a game unfortunately the Beavers lost by one point :o( Our seats were four rows back behind home plate.

I can and I did

You ever have a day when you get up fully intending to carry on with a normal day, coffee breakfast and off to the office. On our street there are three families that are on vacation and have asked that I water their yards while they are gone. They have normal sized lots and all are those boring, common type of yards that have mostly lawn with planting boarders of what ever was on sale at the local nursery......not an ounce of imagination or desire. Regardless I spend time to make sure everything gets watered on my watch, I would hate for something to shrivel and die in the much needed hot spell we have been having. So....my alarm went off at its normal 05:00 and I showered and put on my gardening clothes and headed up the street to the first yard, I was on my third yard when Mema came looking for me to say goodbye before heading off to work. She said "you look relaxed there farm boy, too bad you can't just stay home". I looked at her and replied, "I can", and I did. I am a list maker, and keep several lists. The first is a list for the week, all those little jobs I know I can get done through the work week. The second is a list of things that will involve time and trips to the hardware store and the like. And a third which takes precedence over my other lists and this is the one that has all the things that my lovely wife tells me she would like done. Watering done I looked over my lists and picked a few things from all three. I pulled out the row of Sweet Peas because they had all gone to seed and the few flowers left would not fill a vase(weekly list). Harvested my rows of Danvers Half Long Carrots and planted a single row for a fall crop(weekly list). Then it was off to the fuel company for two bags of sawdust for the chicken yard. I dug the yard and spread the sawdust to help combat the flies and dust(Memas list). Then a trip to the Miller for chicken feed and scratch (Memas list). Dead headed all fifty some roses (Memas list). Picked a basket of Gravenstein apples, I smell a pie in the works! That was on none of the list, but pie sounds good. Then off to the greenhouse to spray a preventative for spider mite(second list) and found this Phalaenopsis Orchid in bloom 'Rung Gung Ames'. A dainty little Orchid to surprise Mema.

While I ate some lunch my eldest son called and asked that I babysit "The Little Terrorist #2", so the rest of the day was spent reading Thomas The Train and making adventures. And all three lists were put on hold.

Time to clean and store the garlic

In my post from 7/20/10 titled "Garlic Crop for 2010" I mentioned that after hanging I test the bulbs for dryness every week. Well they were dry, so this Sunday in the blazing heat we are having finally I cleaned the garlic for storage.

Tools needed for the job. I use the screened bottomed nursery flats to store the cleaned bulbs.

The first bundle cut down from the drying rack

I cut a one inch stem just to check that all are dried and it makes for easier handling

I then use a box cutter to trim the roots off

I use rubber gardening gloves to clean the bulbs of dirt also removing the soiled first layer of skin

And after a trim and a rub you have the finished product ready for storage or gift basket.
This one is the Hood River variety called 'Purple Glazer', a hardneck variety.

Last year we had five trays crammed full, which proved to be far more then we could use.
So this year I cut the crop in half and this gave us these three trays. I have three variety of garlic. The Purple Glazer hardneck, originally from the Republic of Georgia, produces 9 to 12 cloves per bulb. Second we have 'Brown Tempest' also a hardneck and is a great roasting garlic with plump 5 to 9 cloves per bulb. And last we have 'Georgia Crystal' which is a porcelain variety great for salsa and pesto and is mild when eaten raw.

And patiently waiting in the wings is my golf partner, Grandson Brooklyn who thinks garlic is yucky!

What's In Bloom

Martha Washington, you can count on her bloom all summer long

Hibiscus Syriacus or Rose of Sharon
This prominent old plant is in the front garden.
I can't keep enough rooted cuttings in the greenhouse and have already given
away all of them for this year.

"Casa Blanca" Lilies are just starting to open

"Sarabande" an impressive tetraploid at over six feet

'Clerodendron trichotomum'   Harlequin Glorybower or as the "Little Terrorists" call it, the Peanut Butter Tree
The flowers have a very heady perfume but when a branch is cut or a leaf is crumpled it smells just like peanut butter.

Dahlia 'Color Spectacle'

All these Dahlias came from Swan Island Dahlia Farm. We had three times this amount last year but the winter was not in their favor and followed by an unusually cool wet spring and early summer, they didn't have a chance.

'Hugs 'N' Kisses

'Giggles'

August Garden Calendar

Bearded Iris : Divide and cut foliage into a fan shape

Fuchsias : Fertilise regularly with full strength fertiliser

Cane Berries : Remove canes that bore fruit this summer; Start training new canes

Harvest Herbs : Morning harvest after dew has dried, more flavor will be retained if picked in the A.M.

Propagate Shrubs : Take tip cuttings of Camellia, Daphne, Holly, Hydrangea, Magnolia, Nandina, Rhodie's and viburnum this month - dip cuttings in root hormone and plant in mix of equal parts peat and perlit or sand. Water soil well, give bottom heat if possible. Use cloche for best results to maintain humidity.

Roses : Last application of fertilizer ( 1/2 cup per rose). Continue to spray with "Serenade" for Black Spot.

Garlic : Cut the stalk one inch from bulb and gently squeeze the remaining one inch of stalk to see if there is any moisture. If it is dry then it is time to start cleaning the bulbs for storage.