First Thursday

Hi, I've been drinking, would you be so kind as to indulge me in looking at a bunch of photos I took on First Thursday tonight?









I once took a very similar photo:



Stop here if you don't like pictures of random strangers.

31 More Plants Today

We went to Rosso and picked up 31 more plants today, about the same number that we got yesterday at Steamboat. Most are for filling in crevices in the rock wall.

Here's what we got today:

5 Cryptomeria japonica 'Cristata'
3 Ceanothus 'Vandenberg'
5 Ceanothus 'Point Reyes'
4 hot pink heathers
4 lavender pink heathers
4 or so low-growing sedums
6 or so tall sedums, including Purple Emperor

The Cryptomeria:



Everything else:



Of our 60 or so plants from the last two days, everything is in the ground except:

1 smoke bush (Cotinus 'Grace')
2 compact strawberry bushes (Arbutus unedo 'Compacta')
3 corkscrew rush (Juncus effusus 'Unicorn')
3 Ceanothus 'Vandenberg'

Wanna see?

OK, here's a view from inside the house. Until a few weeks ago, we couldn't even see that little white house. Then the neighbor decided to clearcut his laurel hedge. Anyway, that row of plants going in are the Cryptomeria, a beautiful evergreen that's native to Japan. The row of evergreens at the top of the wall are Ceanothus 'Julia Phelps,' which I planted last year. Yes, I know they are going to get too big for that space.



And here are some sections of the side of the rock wall, which had no plantings at all a couple weeks ago. But we've learned that having nothing is not an option. Nothing = weeds. Next weekend we're going to put down newspaper and a shitload of barkdust on the neighbor's newly bare backyard to help prevent weeds from taking over. He was just going to leave it alone, but he's letting us take some preventive steps against a weed invasion.











We also planted a Eucalyptus. It may not survive the cold. It may get too big for our yard. Oh well. I really wanted one, and it was $14.50, so it's OK if it dies and it's OK if I have to kill it.



Now check out these Cryptomeria.



The new growth reminds me of coral.



And gingko.



And brains.



I love it.





And I dig the rock wall too.

Steamboat Island Nursery

Today I was inspired by this Seattle Times article to take a trip out to Steamboat Island Nursery.

There's quite a buzz about the exotic yet drought-tolerant plants being produced and sold by Laine McLaughlin and Duane Heier. The little "Steamboat Island Nursery" tag seems to garnish the pot of nearly every cool plant I find these days. But Steamboat's offerings are no overnight wonder. McLaughlin started the nursery more than a decade ago in this remotely beautiful spot on a skinny finger of land jutting into Puget Sound.

I was told that this blue-green plant would need some protection over the winter. But I haven't yet gotten to the point where I'm willing to baby any of my plants. It's still "love it or leave it" in my yard.





Here's that poisonous ricin plant that I love.



Banana is gorgeous but has no place in a lazy Northwesterner's garden.







This thorny little guy, a Rosa sericea pteracantha, was featured in the newspaper article.





It gets big.



I love Salvia.



I bought some of this weird donkeytail sedum for our rock wall. It meets all the prerequisites for that space: rosy-colored, sun loving, drought tolerant.



Our final haul. A bunch of sedum, a few unicorn plants, a couple of dwarf strawberry trees, a smoke tree, and a eucalyptus, which we'll plant where a quince used to be.

Photos from 9 Pound Hammer Last Night