Spring feels like it’s getting off to a slow start around Bellingham this year. I had to scrape frost of my windshield on Tuesday morning, and high temperatures have remained in the mid-40s. Our daffodils are continuing to look good — a blaze of gold in the corner garden. It must be too cold for the slugs as they haven’t been eating many blossoms this year.

We can go from sun to cloud and back to sun again quickly. The two different kinds of light make for different feelings in a photo of the same subject. On the left, Monday afternoon sun. On the right, Wednesday afternoon cloudy skies. One captures the brilliance of spring in a sunny garden; the other a more mellow feeling under softer light.
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After hauling more rock and more soil and constructing three low stone walls, the result is good. Here’s what one of the three new beds looked like right after the soil was placed and roughly leveled.

Natalie worked for a couple of hours the other evening to start planting the beds. This one got a nice low-growing variegated Ceanothus in the middle. She put bunches of crocus, which had come out to make room for the wall, around some of the edges. There’s still more planting to do, but we’re making progress. We’re thinking of mostly low-growing plants in this bed, with some dwarf conifers in the other two corners. We spent a bunch of money on plants the other day, but still need to do more shopping. We haven’t been plant shopping together for a while, so it’s a fun thing to do. Continue reading →

Just as a seed germinates and then grows into a mature plant, this blog will grow and mature over time. These small lettuce seedlings, some of which still have their seed coats attached, are only a day or two past sticking their heads up through the ground. This blog is just beginning, and like the seedlings, is seeking sunlight and nourishment.

Over time, I expect to write about gardening, native plants, and photography. I’ll share thoughts about the plants we grow, plants I find interesting in the wild, and photographic interests. It’s hard to tell at this point just where this missive will lead. Check in every now and then to see what’s new.

The seedlings were photographed on my back windowsill with a 100mm macro lens, a 2x teleconverter, and a short extension tube between them to make it all fit together. In actuality, they’re only about an inch tall. The light came from the window, and the background is black because they’re growing in a black plastic 6-pack tray. When they get big enough, I’ll transplant them into our garden and eventually they’ll be dinner.