New House Files, Part 3

I've become a plant hoarder.

I cannot help myself.

I see this moderately large patch of grass in the new house's front yard and I envision a much different looking landscape. I see the nasty English laurel hedge trimmed and managed. In my minds eye I see the front grass ripped out.

I mean, all of the grass ripped out. I envision yards of fresh dirt dumped and then raked out with spots of height for dimension, carefully tiered.

So, I can't help myself when I visit a nursery. I mean, let's be honest. Some of the plants I want, surely are only going to be available now. And, certainly there is a better selection as the new arrivals pour in....now.

You see, I have myself convinced that I am in the right frame of mind.

Jenni, the plant hoarder.

Service Berry and 2 Blue Berry varieties

The reality is that I'm stuck inside, scraping paint and old wall paper off of every wall in the old house and
I'm dreaming of the day when I can begin to tear out the lawn and put these pretties in the ground.

My recent plant finds include:
Daphne O. 'Aurea Marginata
Chameacyparis Lawson Lana? 'springtime' and 'blue surprise' (slow growing dwarf conifers)
Thuja Occidentalis 'Golden Tuffet' Abovite (dwarf conifer)
Calluna Vulgaris 'Sir John Charringtow' (this is like a summer heather with pretty reddish/yellow foliage in winter)
Thuja Plicata Filiformis - Threadleaf cedar (dwarf)
Azealea 'greenwood orange' and 'mother's day red'
Hellebore 'Pink Spotted Lady'
Winter Heather Erica Carnea (darker to magenta), Mediterranean Pink and Mediterranean White.
And another dwarf conifer that I sadly didn't get the name of, something from the cedar family.

I have already planted two varieties of Japanese Maple last fall, as well as a combination apple tree. I have a combination pear tree, service berry and blue berries to plant soon in the back yard.

The front yard is part sun and will be perfect for so many of the pretty plants I have in my current home. They're coming with me.

Dreams and plans while scraping paint and wallpaper.
Cheers, Jenni

GBBD March 2012

It's that time of the month to celebrate blooms! My late winter gardens have a few pretties to share.

Primrose and daffodil containers brushed with snow.

Ivory Prince Hellebore.

Blue Lady Hellebore

Spritely crocuses creating a pretty blanket of color.

Tete a tete Daffodils just beginning to open.

A few Mt. Hood Daffodils have opened. Someday I'm going to have a yard with daffodils naturalized *everywhere*! I love them. Plus they are so sturdy for our sometime wicked weather conditions in the late winter.

Winter is wrapping up, although we have a La Nina affect upon us again which means a cool, wet spring will be the order of the season here in the Pacific NW.

Link over to Carol's at May Blooms Garden to join in the party in our fun monthly show of blooms.
Cheers, Jenni

Indoor Seed Growing

A big gardening goal for me this year is grow all of my plants from seed. In my quest to reduce cost's for my family, starting my garden plants from seed is a logical choice.

Of course, there is that little nagging thought in the back of my head, wondering if I'll blow it. Tomatoes and peppers are difficult to grow in our cooler summers and I've never had much luck with peppers at all.  However, armed with many seed catalogs I spent many an hours in January making lists and comparison shopping.

I choose to order with Territorial seeds as they are based here in Oregon and it would be nice to support a more local company. They also had a nice variety of choices for plants that grow best in our climate.

I also purchased organic fertilizer (I do to make my own again this year as well) and indoor growing propagators. After reading a great article by Mark over at Mark's Veg Plot, I was inspired to purchase a propagator with a higher dome lid so that plants could reach a more mature age indoors, then be transplanted.

This is my little propagator. I've sown many herbs along with tomatoes and peppers. One variety of pepper is only just beginning to sprout, even after been in there for over a month. As I've never undertaken this kind of project on before, it is difficult for me to tell if things are too leggy or not.  Knowing my luck, they're too leggy.

I plan to start another propagator with more warm loving veggies later this month to compare growth and possibly have more starts should these not work out.

For a list of what I planted, visit my Veg Plot 2012 page. I am most excited about growing more basil. I have enjoyed my homemade pesto so much this past winter.

My goals for future seed sowing is that I feel confident enough to grow heirloom varieties, with the intention saving seeds. This year, with our big move and home renovations, I felt that going with more hybrid varieties would be prudent, as they tend to not need as much attention.

Ah, the best laid plans.......

Cheers, Jenni

New House Files, Part 2

Wallpaper is the devil.

Over the past month, my husband and I have been working on the interior of the old house in Willamette, Oregon. Nearly every wall in the house has layers of old wallpaper and old paint on top of that. In some places I've counted three layers of wallpaper and 2 layers of paint.

If the walls had not been chipping in some places, I would have been pleased as punch to just paint over. But, as we plan to make this historic family home ours for years to come, taking the approach of doing a throughout and solid job will save us work in the future.

The front door is beautiful! My husband's uncle refinished it a few years ago.

All of the walls in the house, except the small dining room at the back, were built with 1930's plywood. It was a very hardy material but as we've stripped the wallpaper and paint down to the boards, my mind begins to wonder what we are going to do to repair these walls? Texture and paint? Re-wallpaper? Combo?  I hear that wallpaper is coming back in vogue and it would fit the era of the home, but after hand peeling it off the walls for hours and days on end, forgive me if I'm a little reluctant to put it back on. However, I'm open to suggestions :)

View of front room. A little peek a boo window to the kitchen was built by the great grandfather Pete so he and his wife could chit-chat while she was making dinner.

Front room walls with the large front window to the right.  

In the above picture you can see the baseboards and trim that my father-in-law has been working on refinishing. He had the front room floors refinished after pulling up the old carpet and finding the original wood floors.  They are a soft wood, old Douglas Fir, circa mid 1930's. All of the trim and baseboards in the home are of the same wood. When refinished, they are magnificent. A real treasure. Sadly, they all need refinishing because prior tenants painted them several times. But, after some trial and error, my father-in-law found a recipe for refinishing them and we are all delighted with how lovely they are turning out!

So, what will you be doing on this fine Saturday? Well, you know where I'll be! 

Here's a link to part one of this adventure in case you're interested. 

Cheers, Jenni

Wordless Wednesday

We have signs of spring!

Cheers, Jenni

New House Files, Part 1

Why so quiet Jenni dear? You must be wondering...ok, I have an inflated sense of self but I'll tell you what's been happening in my neck of the woods the past few weeks.

I've been recovering from gall bladder surgery, which occurred two weeks ago. The procedure went smoothly and I'm starting to feel like I've got some energy and pep again! Woohoo!

At the same time, we've begun the work on remodeling the old house we plan to call home this coming July. I'll admit to not wanting to share pictures of this old place in it's current state because I'm embarrassed of how poorly it looks. Logically, I know we'll change all that and bring this home back to life, but the process will be long and I struggle with the lack of aesthetics the place currently has to offer.

My pride often gets in my way. I blame my Dutch grandparents who, after immigrating from Holland post WWII, carved a new life for themselves and their young family, purely through grit and hard work. They had no formal education past the 8th grade because the Nazi's closed the schools. My grandfather (Opa) worked in concrete/construction and my grandmother (Oma) cleaned homes for the wealthier Dutch families they knew. They were humble, but proud people. They always kept themselves and their residence in good condition.  These values were passed along to me. I know they would have rolled up their sleeves and dug into the work of rehab-ing this old house as I will also do, but dear friends, I admit to having been spoiled by our modern times. I've never taken on a project quite this big and it feels overwhelming.

So, I hope you'll be my cheering squad.

The Old House

We've begun the work of moving my father in law out, as this was his home prior. With the interior clear,  we are beginning the work inside. I'll be detailing that in later posts.

This home was built by my husbands great-grandfather, Pete. He was an immigrant from Canada. He built this home during the late 1920's to the early 1930's. Prior to the home, the land was a holly farm. 90+ years later..random bit's of holly can still be found growing in the yard.

Old Pete worked at the nearby lumber mill along the Willamette River in what is now Oregon City. Plywood was the new 'wonder' material in those days. Pete used a lot of it. For example, the interior walls are plywood. I admit that those walls have held up well ;)

Pete and his wife, Nellie had beautiful gardens. Lot's of flowers and a great big Victory Garden that kept them fed during the lean years of the depression.

A view to the back yard

The yard has been unloved and fairly unused. I have grand plans to build raised vegetable garden beds next month and to bring some food production back to this property.

I am excited about the large yard space I will have to work with. It's the thing that has made me agree to make this move and take on all the work. In the above picture, there is a concord grape that was planted by Pete. It still produces a substantial quantity of grapes every year. To the back left of the picture, you can see I'll be battling the neighbor's rogue black berries, as they spill over the back fence. That home is for sale and my husband and I are hopeful the new owners will tidy up down the road.

My father in law did plant something during his tenure in the home.  He brought raspberries from his prior home in California. They are good producers and I plan to dig up canes from the raspberries I've been growing in my current home to add another row and some variety.

There is so much to be done. I look around and know that between myself and my husband, we'll be touching every square inch of the home and yard to bring it back to life.

I hope that in a few years, my family will be able to pull into the driveway of the old house and feel joy at being 'home'. For now, it's time to roll up our sleeves and work.

Cheers, Jenni

Seriously Soggy Days & Mom Down & Veggies

The ground is saturated from the past days of heavy rain. It's been mild and blustery. It's the time of year I dislike the most here in the Pacific Northwest.

As I walked around outside, the mud was squishy and making sloppy noises as I walked around. There are bare spots in the grass from the rotten dogs running their laps around the house.

February is usually the month I lose my patience with our gray weather patterns. If I could afford it, this would be the month for me to take a vacation somewhere..dry.

This year, February has kept me quite home bound as I was diagnosed with painful Pancreatitis early in the month and had a procedure to remove the stuck gall stones and then, last week, surgery to remove my gall bladder.

I'm not a good patient in the first place, but the 'mom down' aspect in our household had unanticipated effects with my son becoming very upset and acting out in ways that has caused the family additional stress. Little kids often struggle with a change in routine.

We've been pulling through, but I do wish the past few weeks could have been easier. It's all been a bit much.

In other news, I enjoyed getting caught up on the show Downton Abby, as I had not watched it before. (I admit to having a few marathon sessions on the TV while I was recuperating ;)

Much to my delight today, I found the seeds I had directly sowed in the garden, early in February have sprouted.

Lettuce

Radishes

And even a few sprigs of spinach have emerged.  Also the garlic is looking great that I started in October. These were all part of the seed order I placed with Territorial Seeds. I'm quite excited to really try to grow all of my own vegetables from seed this year.

Garlic

Join me later this week for a look at the few blooms that have emerged from soggy ground. I'm keeping my raincoat and muck boots handy as the dripping facet from the clouds continues.

Cheers, Jenni