Garden Bloom Day Photos (One Day Late)

Parking Strip Planting on Beacon Hill

My future sister-in-law (hurray) planted this parking strip outside her house at one of the intersections on 15th. Thank you! I love this.

Hawthorn Tree Outside City Hall

A coworker of mine is a smoker, and I've started hanging out with her when she goes outside to smoke because I like her and I like outside. Yesterday I talked her into walking across the street to City Hall to light up, and she asked me what this tree was. I told her I didn't know but that I would take a picture so I could find out.



But then we noticed that the fine City of Seattle folks tagged it for us. English Hawthorn.



Then we went back to work.

Fall Morning in the U-District

This morning I went to the Farmers Market in the U-District, my first Seattle neighborhood.





I miss all the hippie yards.



I'm a peaceful and cowardly person, but I think if I saw a person spray-painting a tree, I'd want to kick their ass.









Doesn't "Sweetbread" mean brains? I'd never heard of this little local vineyard before. I gambled on the cheapest white and red.



Then I went to Esquin Wine Merchants and lollygagged in the Loire whites section before finally settling on Cheverny. What I really wanted was a Sancerre, but apparently Cheverny is another steel-fermented Sauvignon Blanc wine from the Loire Valley, and it was $10 cheaper than the Sancerres. Hopefully it will have that minerally taste that I love so much in Sancerre -- we'll see.

Then I suddenly decided that I also wanted a Niagara ice wine for dessert, so I grabbed one from Jackson-Triggs, a vineyard that I blogged but didn't name back in July.

Those Backyard Photos I Promised to Bore You With

Happy heather.



Sad heather.



Despondent heather.





I can't tell if this is going to look cool-weird (like the Cryptomeria) or shitty-weird, this planting-grasses-in-rocks thing.



I guess we'll find out.



That Euphorbia had self-seeded in the front.



The spouse wanted this zebra miscanthus. In general, I'm not crazy about variegation on leaves.



I can't get enough of the Autumn Joy type sedums right now. The unseasonal colors, the weird leathery texture. They seem primordial.







This Point Reyes Ceanothus has had no complaints yet.



I'll spare you from individual portraits of the Cryptomeria this time.



OK, just one.



A lot of plum crisps have gone unmade this year.



I want these Julia Phelps Ceanothuses to grow into a hedge-type barrier. Should I try to move them father apart or let them be this close? They're already touching, and they're only to about 3 feet of their eventual 7 feet.



Wow. Look how little they were just 6 months ago. You can barely even see them in this photo.



May I show you a couple more photos from back in March?

My Red Dragon on March 18:



My Red Dragon on March 21:



My Red Dragon in mid-September:



I know real gardeners are probably all done freaking out how much plants can grow in one season, but me, I'm still astounded. If these things that we take to our homes can grow 100 times their original size in 6 months, what the hell else might they do when we're not looking?

Another thing that happened when I wasn't paying attention. Bars started projecting pro-drinking messages on the walls. Last night at Chop Suey.



I was there to see Editors, my second-favorite band from Birmingham, England. (DD 4-EVER!)



I'll sign off with a couple of photos of things for sale at the Columbia City Farmers' Market today. (I bought 5 pounds of heirloom tomatoes, 8 Skagit Valley Farms pork chops, and some goat cheese from Bainbridge Island.)