A Love Letter to My Dad

Daddy’s little girl. There’s a reason for that saying. Fathers and daughters often have a very special bond. That was true between my dad and me. Forget about psychology. I don’t really care about the reason why. I simply adored my dad! He is kind-hearted, gentle, quirky, and hard-working. He thinks before he speaks and just like the brokerage commercial, when my dad speaks everyone listens. He has his faults (most of which I inherited) but he is a lovely man.

Don Powell was an only child born to two teachers. When he was young he lived with his parents in several cities around the state of Oregon, where they had teaching positions. He remembers the coastal black-out during World War II. They finally settled back in Corvallis after the death of his grandfather. (I’m a little unclear about all the history.) His dad taught shop and coached the football team at Philomath High School. During Lee Powell’s tenure, the Philomath high school football team won the state championship. His mom, Garland, taught Botany at OSC, as it was called at the time. Don’s father died from lung cancer when he was in high school. He lived in the house on the nursery property that my sister currently occupies. Having grown up on the nursery and living in that house, we kids know far more about the history of the Schmidt family property than we do of my Mom’s family’s property. Dad has many stories about helping farm the acreage that my grandmother owned. The farm was larger then. Dad’s grandmother, Mrs. Schmidt, sold a portion to the college.

Dad has shared many stories of high school. In my mind, they all revolved around being different, not dressing the same way, not quite fitting in. I think we all feel that way. Dad played football , basketball, and participated in track in high school. He excelled at and enjoyed sports. I have many fond memories of playing softball and basketball with Dad and my brother, Lee. Lee followed in my Dad’s footsteps and excelled at football, basketball and track. Even my baby sister, Erica played basketball in high school. That was the powerful influence of our dad. I didn’t compete in sports, as I am: short, uncoordinated, and shy. However, I did have a minor foray into powderpuff football in college and I can honestly say I enjoy and understand football and basketball.

College followed high school and Dad attended Oregon State College, studying landscape architecture. Again, there are many stories about his buddies at OSC. He eventually opened a nursery and landscape business in Washington with 2 of these buddies. Somewhere in that timeline is a stint in the army. But back to the nursery in Washington because that is how he met my mom. (I wrote about that courtship in a previous blog, so I won’t go into detail here.) My maternal grandfather was known to give a hard time to the men that ultimately married his daughters. But I think he also filled a fatherly role for my dad. It always appeared to me that there was mutual respect between them.

Not too long after they married, my mom and dad moved back to Corvallis to help Dad’s mom with Garland Nursery. Dad brought his talents to the business. He did landscape design, eventually employing several designers. This increased into a landscape construction business. As he took over more of the management, he added his own touch to the business. My mom participated more every year. They were a truly great team! Dad is so artistic. The displays and mini landscapes he created in the nursery were great. He could create an exceptional floral arrangement, too. In addition, he was the expert. So many clients turned to him for answers to their questions. At least for Garland Nursery, the term “Plant Doctor” originated with my Dad. Finally, he had foresight and an ability to adapt to the situation. Dad worked hard. Sometimes I feel like I will never work as hard as my Mom and Dad did.

Personally, I remember hikes through the forested areas across the county highway from the house. We would traipse through brush and native vegetation. It was always educational. Dad shared the names of all the plants. We ended up at a fishing/swimming hole or a hunting site. I particularly remember one such hike when we went to hunt ducks. I’m not sure why my dad wanted to take me, an out-of-shape pre-teen girl hunting. But I loved the hike! When we finally arrived at the duck blind, it was cold. We had brought hot chocolate. For some reason all we did was drink hot chocolate and enjoy the dance of the birds. We never fired a shot! Perhaps that was what my dad needed. I’m not sure but I am so glad that it is still a treasured mutual memory.

Dad, and Mom, believed in giving back to the community. Dad was on the parks commission. He was a long time member of the Corvallis Rotary chapter. Also, he was President of the Retail Chapter of the Oregon Association of Nurseries and finally the President of the OAN. In addition, he served on many committees at the state level of the OAN. Also, he helped start an industry buying cooperative and served on its board for many years.

So what is Dad doing now? Well, he still loves to grow things. He has space by his house where he grows the pumpkins and gourds that we sell in the fall. He starts them in his greenhouse and then plants them out. Dad enjoys helping out with displays at the nursery. Just a few days ago, we asked him to bring up some roses and add to displays at the entry. He was thrilled, as he felt they weren’t being seen where they were. Plus Dad is still the senior male in the Powell clan. Like it or not, all of the Powell girl spouses have to live up to his example. Dad doesn’t expect this from them. It is us, his daughters that ask this of our men. Be sensitive, smart, artistic, hard-working. I didn’t even mention handsome! Oh boy, are you guys in trouble!

Dedicated to the Mom I Love

Last week I wrote a little about the Powell women and shared a few family memories relating to gardening.  This week I’d like to focus on one very special woman in particular.  That woman is my mom, Sandra Powell.  She ran the nursery with my dad for a long time, working hard and putting her personality and talents into the business.  She still contributes much to the nursery and has left a wonderful example for her daughters to follow.  Nearly everyday, someone asks me, “How are your parents doing?  How is your mom?”  She has a great many friends and fans in the community.

Mom married into the family business.  Growing up in rural Washington, she learned  much about farming from her dad.  She has always been a hard worker and I’m sure she did her fair share of milking, collecting eggs, and leading the cows home.  She knew how to kill a chicken and probably butcher a cow, too, although I don’t think I ever asked about that.  She earned her way through college as a waitress.  That’s how she met my dad.  My dad, being the tall, dark and handsome type had no shortage of female attention.  But something about my mom caught his attention.  Maybe it was because she was a good dancer.  Or outgoing, smart, and fun.  Whatever that combination of attributes was, Dad fell in love, and the rest as they say, is history.

Mom graduated with a degree in home economics from Washington State University.  She married Dad in August after graduation.  She taught home ec in Washington before she and Dad moved back to Corvallis to help my grandmother, who had been diagnosed with cancer, to run Garland Nursery.  My mom had me soon after moving and then my brother, Lee, two years later.  Many of the first years here were spent raising kids and helping out a little more each year.  By the time my sister, Erica, was born in 1970, my Mom was fully involved in the day-to-day operation of the nursery.

Garland Mothers and Daughters

Mom had a lot of specialties when it came to the business.  She did the bookkeeping herself and later oversaw a bookkeeper.  She cashiered, carried out, helped customers and ordered bedding plants.  She coordinated advertising and spoke to garden clubs and trade groups.  She hired and fired, negotiated and said no to numerous sales people.  She was the editor of our original newsletter, The View from the Barn.  Mom was and still is a great event planner.  That Garland Nursery has events throughout the year and that we’re actually able to pull them off reasonably well is all due to Mom.  She is still the coordinator for our biggest event, Art and Wine in the Garden (coming up this year on  July 27th and 28th).  Mom was the person who started and still propels the two major social events that we put on as a family: the Corn Roast and the ladies Christmas Coffee.

Dad in the rock garden with his mom, Garland

Mom is a positive, outgoing, tell it like it is woman that I greatly admire.  Dad is, in some ways her opposite.  He is artistic, shy at times, thinks before he speaks, and sometimes is wrapped up in his own thougths.  Funny thing is, I identified much more with my dad when I was younger.  My sister was so much more like my mom than I was.  But my mom let my dad be who he was.  I’m sure she directed him the way she wanted him to go, but Dad was always the leader in the family.  And it seemed to work so naturally and well, that I was quite surprised to find out when I got married the first time around how truly difficult it is to maintain that kind of relationship.  It was only after the demise of my first marriage that I decided perhaps I needed follow a little bit more in my mom’s footsteps and emulate some of those attributes that I think make her such a strong woman.  As it turns out, I am more like my mom than I thought, and I am truly grateful for that.

You may have noticed that I have made no mention of the numerous industry and community leadership roles she has filled and accolades she has received.  Mom has been a hardworker and very giving of her limited spare time.  Although those accolades are very nice, I kinda think my mom would actually appreciate more knowing that her children love and admire her.  I’m not a mom, but I know that’s what I’d like more than anything else.

So Mom, this View From the Barn is dedicated to you!  I want you to know that I love you so much.  You are a bright, shining example of womanhood to me.  I only hope to have half of your energy, organizational skills and dedication.  And if I’ve ever said or done anything that has made you feel bad, please forgive me.  I truly admire you.  Thank you for being my mom.  Thank you for being you.

Garden Everything Edible

The Powell women love to cook, eat, entertain and garden.  We got the cooking and eating from Mom’s grandmother and the gardening from Dad’s mother and grandmother.  I have many fond memories that revolve around one or more of these activities.  Many memories surround the yearly vegetable garden we planted as a family  Space was never an issue, so we had a huge garden.  Corn, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant (not a favorite of mine as a kid), and lots more.  Dad would mark the location of the rows with string between stakes.  Mom would hoe a straight row for the seeds.  I remember planting a lot of those seeds and then covering them with the soil.  There were mounds for the corn and squash.  Dad put down black plastic where the tomatoes and peppers grew and cut holes in the plastic, folding it back to allow an area for the plant to grow and receive water.  Regularly we would go out and pull weeds or hoe them out.  Surprisingly, weeding was and is one of my favorite chores.  I must like to see immediate success.  Besides vegetables, Dad grew blueberries, currants, raspberries, strawberries, marionberries, apples, pears and figs.  Mom canned and froze a lot of the harvest.  She taught me to can.  Somehow I have not made time for that activity lately.  It is hot and tedious.  Since my husband and I are trying to practically eliminate sugar and too much salt, I may have to get my canner and jars out this year and can tomatoes and pickles.  We’ll see if that actually happens.

We’ve all been trying to eat healthier, cutting out processed foods.  My sister, Erica even has chickens.  If you visit the nursery you can take a look at them.  They have a coop and run on the outside of her fence in the parking lot by the highway.  She shares the eggs quite often.  She is going to add 2 new ones to the mix.  She’s getting lots of advice from staff members that have their own chickens about how to add new ones to the group.

When Erica and I planned out the nursery events for this year, Erica especially wanted to have a day to celebrate and educate about gardening, cooking and eating.  Out of this idea came our Everything Edible day, which is happening this Sunday, May 5th.  (Check out the list of activities on our website.)  Like everything, Everything Edible took on a life of its own.  Our own Karen will be sharing about growing fruits.  Kate is going to speak about growing vegetables and about the Drunken Botanist collection of plants and how to use them to make cocktails.  We have several guests as well.  Mia Sonatina winery will be here selling wine by the glass and having a class on growing grapes and making wine.  Oregon Trail Brewery, the oldest brewery in the mid-Willamette valley will have his beer truck here.  He’s going to talk about growing hops and brewing beer.  Ryan from Soul2Grow will educate on growing mushrooms.  Vivacity Spirits will be tasting their locally distilled gin and vodka.

Erica and I both love to shop at the First Alternative Co-op.  When we began planning Everything Edible, Erica approached them about being a food vendor for the event.  So we are very pleased that First Alternative will be at the nursery from 11-3, selling food.  Yum.  I can’t wait.

The nursery has been so busy this past week with people planting their gardens.  We have loaded up on vegetable starts, herbs and fruiting plants.  There should be nearly 70 varieties of tomatoes.  We even have grafted tomatoes and grafted eggplant.  The weather is beautiful (and warm on Sunday).  So, I hope you can make it out to Garland Nursery.  I can’t wait to plant my garden.  I hope there’s something left.

GYOG

Growing your own groceries is so rewarding and easy.  How wonderful to pick a handful of ripe, juicy cherry tomatoes and plop them in your mouth.  You never have that perfect flavor in a store bought tomato.  Plus, you know exactly what has gone into the production of your salad (or any other vegetable).  Organically grown?  Check.  Locally grown and starts purchased from a local nursery? Check.  If there is a thriving farmer’s market in your area, you can say the same thing.  But when you grow your own vegetables, there is the added benefits of exercise, connection to nature, and pride of what your sweat produced.

Just a beginner or are you an experienced vegetable gardener and just need a few tips?  Here is some food for thought in planning out your vegetable garden.

Different vegetables need different amounts of sunlight.  Warm season vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, beans, corn and cucumbers need full sun or at least 6 hours daily.  Cooler season veggies like lettuce, spinach and other leafy greens will do well in partial shade.

Soil preparation is important.  Vegetables like a well-drained soil.  To prepare your soil, use a shove to turn the soil.  Add some organic matter such as Gardner & Bloome Harvest Supreme into your soil.  If you are building raised beds, a combination of Eden Valley Potting Soil and Harvest Supreme is superb.  Need a truck load?  Many local bark suppliers offer a fertile mix.  Just make sure it is free of weeds and aged.

When planning your garden make sure you have the right amount of space for what you plan to plant.  Vegetables like tomatoes, zucchini and melons require more space than other types of veggies.  There are varieties available that produce more in a small space, so if you are limited in area, consider those.  Anything you can grow vertically like beans and cucumbers help save space, also.  Need a great guide for getting as much yield as possible in a small area?  Check out Square Foot Gardening and The All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew.  He recommends an easy grid system to maximize your space.

When you plant use a starter fertilizer like Espoma Bio-tone Starter Plus and then follow-up in a few weeks with Garden Tone or Tomato Tone for tomatoes and peppers.  Reapply fertilizer every 4-6 weeks.

Water is a key ingredient.  It is better to do deep, infrequent waterings as opposed to daily watering.  This encourages deeper rooting.  Drip irrigation is a good way to go.  However you water, morning watering will decrease your risk of fungal problems.

Rotating where you plant certain vegetables helps to decrease nutrient deficiencies and thwart pests.

Pruning can help increase yield.  Tomatoes like to have their side growth pruned back.  Removing suckers and any dead or diseased growth is good.

Some vegetables need support.  Small 2-3 foot cages work great for eggplant and peppers.  Larger, folding cages or spiral stakes are excellent for tomatoes.  A trellis or teepee works well for vining vegetables such as cucumbers and pole beans.

Including flowering plants in your garden helps to attract pollinators and beneficial insects.  Try Alyssum, Zinnias, and Marigolds.  Interested in companion planting?  Check out the books “Carrots love Tomatoes” and “Roses love Garlic” for ideas of what to plant next to something else.

Protect your vegetables from slugs and snails by using kid and animal friendly products.  Sluggo (Iron phospate), Sluggo Plus (Iron phosphate and spinosad) and Gro Power Snail and Slug Away (cinnamon oil).  I’ll put in a personal testimonial for the cinnamon oil product.  I have used it and the results are amazing.  I have a tremendous amount of snails and when I consistently apply the Gro Power product, the snails do not touch the protected plant.

What else do I know?  I read somewhere that you should always plant at least 2 tomatillos.  Not sure if that is true.  Don’t want to find out.  They are prolific.  Two tomatillo plants is fine.  More could be a problem.  I cannot tell you how to successfully grow cilantro.  I don’t like the stuff, so never bothered to learn how to grow.  Cilantro is fickle and bolts easily.  Good luck!  Zucchini does have male and female flowers.  Early on zucchinis only produce male flowers.  So you don’t get squash production initally.  After a few weeks, female flowers are produced.  If the baby squash turn yellow and shrivel, pollination is not happening and you may need to hand pollinate the flowers.  Sometimes the harder you try, the worse your results.  So, just relax and let go.  Whatever you do, have fun!  Gardening may be work but it shouldn’t be drudgery.  And if you really hate it that much, there is a really great farmer’s market in Corvallis.

Do you want even more information? Make sure and come to our “Everything Edible” event on May 5. There are presentations throughout the day.

Click here to find out more.

Good Bugs vs. Bad Bugs

Chemicals have been the most widely used form of pest control since the late 1930s. Most people have been successfully taught by insecticide advertising to fear and hate all insects. With the ever-increasing concerns of the environment we share, rising chemical costs, and an increased resistance by the pests to chemicals, the use of beneficial insects are on the rise. Consumer purchasing of natural pest control has increased 300% over the past few years. People concerned about their environments, families with children and pets, and people with health issues are especially welcoming this alternative to chemicals.

From Art in the Garden
Join us in July

Beneficial insects are divided into two categories: parasite and predator. The ladybug is an example of a predator, the aphid a parasite. The ladybug consumes bad bugs such as aphids, whitefly, spider mites, mealy bugs, scale, and many other soft-bodied insect pests.

The praying mantis is strictly carnivorous and will feed on almost any garden pest it encounters. Mantises are showy creatures and help control garden insect pests the organic way. They are also very interesting to have around.

Beneficial insects attack pest problems by reducing the number of a given pest to below a damaging level. So, instead of using harmful insecticides, try creating a line of defense the natural way.

1,500 ladybugs will generally be sufficient for a 500 square foot planted area. Repeat releases two or three times a week is recommended. One single ladybug can consume 5,000 aphids in its 100-day life cycle. It is highly important NOT to use broad spectrum insecticides, which are toxic to beneficial ladybugs.

Two praying mantis egg sacks will cover 3,000 square feet. It can take eight weeks to hatch from the brown paper bag-like sack.

Just like a sci-fi movie, nematodes are lethal little buggers that disintegrate plant pests from the inside out. After their first application to your garden, they waste no time getting to work. Nematodes enter pests through their body openings and, once inside, kill the pest within 48 hours. Once they’ve gotten what they need out of one pest, they quickly exit and track down their next victim. They are a great control for root weevil larvae.  We suggest applying nematodes in the early morning or at dusk.

As for red wiggly worms, they’re more than just a cute name. A bunch of red wigglers are an ideal addition to your composting and gardening efforts. Aside from spicy foods, these worms will eat just about anything that is plant based, turning your compost into some of the richest plant food you can find. The wigglers’ castings promote healthy root systems, naturally aerate soil, retain moisture and slowly release nutrients.

At Garland Nursery you will find fresh supplies of these beneficial garden predators: Ladybugs, Praying Mantis, Nematodes.

Kids are fascinated by beneficial bugs, as well as other creepy crawlies.  This Saturday, April 13th, Garland Nursery’s Little Sprouts Kids Club is learning all about Garden Friends: Snakes, Beneficial Insects and Animals. It starts at 11am.  The cost is $5.  Please pre-register by calling us at (541) 753-6601.

Hot Potatoes

Hot Potatoes

Fried, baked, diced, grilled, broiled, mashed… the possibilities for enjoying these tasty tubers is endless!

To begin the process of growing your very own potatoes, you first need to purchase high quality seed potatoes that are disease and chemical free. Do not try to use grocery store bought potatoes as plant starts. They have been specially treated so as to not go to seed and sprout. Seed potatoes have “eyes” that are the buds which the plant will grow from.  To maximize your yield you will want to use a simple technique of “chitting” the potatoes.  Chitting is the act of placing potatoes inside in a sunny location.   This helps to sprout very shot buds. Which in turn cuts down on time to harvest and usually renders bigger harvests.

Once you’ve finished chitting your potatoes, cut the potato into pieces about the size of a “medium hen egg” about 5 to 6 days before planting. Be sure that each piece of potato has at least one good “eye,” or sprout. Also be careful not to break off any of the budded eyes. This “eye” is what will provide the seed with nourishment until it has established a root system. Store the seed pieces in a well-ventilated space so that they can heal over in preparation for planting. We find that one pound of seed potatoes usually yields 9 to 10 seed pieces. While you can save these seeds for extended periods, be sure not to save them for more than a year. This considerably increases their potential for developing a virus that will significantly diminish the plant’s tuber yield. March, or about three weeks before the last spring frost, is the time when soil temperatures are about 50°F, signally that it is time to plant your seed pieces. Start by digging a trench about three inches deep, then placing the pieces in the soil about 12 inches apart. Make sure to press the seeds down firm enough so that they make a solid connection with the soil. Then cover the seeds, but with no more than three inches of soil.  If seeds are covered with too much soil they will take longer to break the surface and will be more susceptible to decay and disease. As the seeds grow occasionally add compost on top. Your first harvest of young potatoes will be ready when the plant begins to flower. Full sized potatoes will be ready for harvesting when the vines turn yellow or have died-back.

Potato Varieties available in bulk:

All Blue- Blue: Dark blue skin with an almost purple flesh. The plants have beautiful blue flowers and produce tons of oblong tubers. They make beautiful and unique mash potatoes and are great in potato salad as an added splash of color.

Cal White- White: These are a great basic white potato. It produces very large smooth, oblong tubers that are thin-skinned. The plant is large in size and has a great yield.  Great for boiling.

Chieftan-Organic: This variety is a mid-season potato maturing with  beautiful, smooth, coppery red skin and creamy white flesh. With shallow eyes and few of them, Chieftain does not darken after  peeling, boils well, has a fairly thin skin and stores very well.  They are quite attractive on the table! If you want to use them as new potatoes, harvesting can begin 8 weeks after planting. Picture these coppery red skins in fresh potato  salad! Yummmm!

Dark Red Norland

German Butterball-Organic: Rich, golden russet-type potatoes are an all-around favorite for baking, frying and steaming. An all-purpose potato, with delicious, buttery flavor and a tender, flaky texture. Just one look and taste and Butterball will be an instant winner in your kitchen and your garden. Excellent for winter storage.

Red Pontiac: A red, round and thin-skinned “new potato” with deep-set eyes. This variety has a popular delicate flavor and maintain their shape very well when boiled in their skin. Firm texture makes them perfect for “new potato hash” and home fries. Pontiac red plants boast dark-green foliage from a single stem and produce a high yield of tubers located right under the plant.

Russet Burbank: With brown nut skin, this famous Idaho potato is great cooked any way imaginable: mashed, fried, boiled or baked. It produces a large, leafy plant with good yield.

Russet Norkotah

Viking Purple:-Organic: Truly a beautiful potato, with deep purple skin dappled with pink splashes and stripes. Bright white and creamy-good, the flesh bakes or mashes perfectly. This variety produces large oversize potatoes, so plant close (8”-10”) to control size.

Yellow Finn-Organic

Yukon Gold- Organic: Smooth and thin-skinned with shallow pink eyes and yellow flesh. Yukons are all-around great potatoes, baked or mashed! Its plant grows large and stands very tall and upright.   It sets on early and can produce large tubers. Stores very well.

Fingerling Types-available in packages-Organic

French- Fingerling: This quality potato boasts a delicious nutty flavor in an oblong package. It has a moist yellow flesh that is streaked with pink color. The French fingerling plant has dark-green foliage and is a great ranger.

Princess La Ratte

Red Thumb

Rose Finn- Fingerling: Beige with touch of blush-red skin and deep yellow flesh distinguishes this very fine fingerling potato. Its tubers have an incredible flavor that makes them ideal for gourmet recipes. The plant is medium sized and mostly upright with its tubers growing close to the surface.

Russian Banana:

Other Organic potato varieties-available packaged:

All Red: Also known as Cranberry Red, this gorgeous potato has rich cranberry-red skin and white flesh with rosy tie-dye swirls which hold color during cooking. Earliness and high yield capacity make it perfect for a new potato, or medium to extra-large full size potato. Best boiled or steamed.

Dark Red Norland

Kennebec: The Kennebec potato is making quite an imprint on the culinary world… potato-wise. The days of ‘just use any old potato’ for french fries are gone, and finer restaurants are switching over to the Kennebec for a variety of reasons and for many kinds of dishes. It is a large potato, and it looks very pretty with its light tan skin, nice uniform appearance and attractive white fleshy insides. The skin is thin so it peels quickly.  It is an easily-grown main crop potato, the plant has a high and dependable yield of large potatoes, it resists blight and other diseases well, and the potatoes winter very well for a long storage time.

Purple Majesty

Red LaSoda: The Red La Soda Potatoes are an improved Pontiac variety! The La Soda is a red potato which matures in 110-120 days, or late season. This potato has short storage, fair boiling properties but makes an EXCELLENT baking potato.

Red Pontiac

Russet Burbank

Yellow Finn

Yukon Gem:  Late blight resistant!  A hybrid developed through traditional means from Yukon Gold. 

Enjoying the Early Spring Blooms

Snowdrops in the rock garden.

What a lovely weekend we enjoyed!  It was so pleasant.  I should have been at home working in the garden.  More than likely I would have been except I was dogsitting.  My sister has been travelling quite a bit and her 2 dogs, Heidi and Corlie, seem to get a little stressed being left alone so often.  Since they are the nursery mascots, it seemed important that my husband and I made sure that they had as little separation anxiety as possible.  All the Powell family is so willing to help one another out.  We all help tend the other’s pets when someone is away.  It’s especially nice for the dogs to have someone stay in the house with them.  It disrupts their routine as little as possible.  It’s a benefit to me, since it cuts my commute time by 75%!  Also, it’s easier to work late but not feel like I’m working too much.  So, Mitch and I willingly stayed at the nursery for four nights.

On Saturday I had the day off.  We are working on putting together our spring magazine, Flourish, that goes out to our reward club members.  I needed Mitch to take photos of staff members for the magazine, so that was a short project on Saturday.  We had a leisurely morning and managed to get out to take the photos around 11:15.  So job complete, I suggested we spend some time taking other photos.  It was such a beautiful day, we each had cameras, and we rarely have the opportunity to take photos during the daytime.  As we put out a calendar each year and use photos for e-mails and on the website, it is nice to take photos each month.  Plus, photography is a hobby I have enjoyed for 30 years.  Mitch originally wanted to be a professional photographer until he was persuaded that he couldn’t make a living doing that.  So, taking pictures is a mutual interest and a calming thing for us to do together.  I especially wanted to take photos of the new gnome display created in the Greenbed raised garden bed in our statuary area, so that is where we started.  Our dog, Tipper, is old and doesn’t get around real fast anymore so we let her join us.  If she were faster I would worry about having her off leash but nowadays I could definitely outrun her and she is very much under my or Mitch’s vocal control.  So we set off for gnomeland.  After that, Mitch decided to head into the hoophouses, where the Camellias were glorious in their bloom.  It was good timing as it started to sprinkle about then.  Not only were the Camellias flowering, but the Daphne were beginning to open up as well as the Pieris.  On we went through all four houses.  We both captured some lovely shots of a contorted filbert with striking catkins.  We blurred the background and got some interesting shots.  The curving architecture of the branches was an interesting contrast to the vertical effect of the catkins (flowers).  Then I needed a quick break.

As we went back outside, for 15 minutes I said, I directed us to the corner of my sister’s

Edgeworthia paper bush

house where I knew the Paper Bush (Edgeworthia) was beginning to blossom.  It is such a strange but striking plant.  It blooms early without leaves.  The flowers are unusual, yellow and white and they tend to curve downward.  It is a very fragrant flower, although that is not conveyed in a photograph.  We had fun photographing from different angles and blurring the background.  Next we ventured to the rock garden.  There wasn’t a whole lot going on yet there, but we did find a couple of Hellebores and many Snowdrops.  The Camellias there were barely beginning to bloom.  The Snowdrops in the rock garden are very sentimental to me.  They have been there as long as I remember and they bloom faithfully each year.  I love the white and green petticoats!  I have taken to picking a small bouquet of the miniature flowers to place in a tiny vase by my sister’s kitchen sink.  I love having a simple cluster of flowers in my house and I get real pleasure out of blessing my sister’s home with a similar bouquet.

From the rock garden we journeyed on into the retail space of the nursery.  It was surprising how many blooming plants there actually were.  We captured Wallflower and Lungwort, Heath and Hellebore.  Interspersed with those lovely flowers were statues and moss.  Mitch is obsessed with moss.  Sometime last year he took numerous photos of moss growing in the rock garden.  They actually were quite lovely photos and I chose two of them to use in the calendar.  I find moss to be calming and entrancing.  From a photographer’s perspective it is also endlessly fascinating.  What we overlook with our eyes becomes an amazing garden throught the lens.  However, I don’t think my sister felt the same way as she lobbied to replace at least one of the moss photos for the calendar.  To each his own.  I wasn’t really into the moss on this particular day but Mitch was very much into the moss growing on our concrete garbage can.  Once I pried him away from that we found a plethora of other things to photograph:  more Hellebores, new metal furniture, hanging glass birdbaths, a resin Ent (Tree Beard, actually from Lord of the Rings), a miniature garden in a trough, primroses and English Daisies.  After that it all seemed a blur.  There were many more photos of color spots and other things.  The highlight of the last portion I discovered as I was looking through the photos that Mitch downloaded.  He had several wonderful shots of the koi (aka goldfish) in the pond in our entry.  I really don’t even notice them, in fact had forgotten they were even there.  But Mitch found them through the water and they were lovely.

At this point I must admit to something and it is a story that Mitch is readily willing to share.  In fact he shared it with someone on this particular outing.  Despite the fact that I am shy, I am not lacking in confidence.  Some could say I am prideful, perhaps boastful.  For some reason, when Mitch started to get back into his photography hobby and he was getting accolades for his photos, I had the nerve to tell him that I thought I took better photographs than he did.  So that was definitely not smart wifely behavior.  I had thrown the gauntlet down.  Mitch decided to take me up on that challenge and purchased a wonderful digital camera for me for Christmas so that I could prove the point.  He did gain something from it, though, as he took the lens from the camera that he purchased for me and gave me his lens.  He has the better camera of the two of us, for sure but we each have the tools to face off in the photography competition.  Unfortunately, I have not taken as many photos as I would have liked, so for the most part, Mitch has won the battle.  The nicest aspect for me this weekend was that we got out together doing something that we both love to do and we had a great time.  Usually we are tackling one project after another, catching up on work, or studying.  It truly was lovely just to relax and discover the early spring blooms through the lens.