The 2014 Northwest Flower and Garden Show

Yay! It's February and time for the annual NW Garden Show!  OK, so it's a little early for spring, but the show is the perfect 'fix' for those that are winter weary.  As for us, well, this year has been really light and not a bad winter at all.  We headed to Seattle this morning with a clear sunny sky and a great day in front of us.

There were about 25 demonstration gardens for us to look at. This year's theme was Art in the Garden (I think).


Glass Houses. . . 


I was fascinated with the glass sarracenia (pitcher plants) display garden. 


















This one really was our favorite - the glass looks like super-sized pitcher plants.

Sooooo many great ideas

Wouldn't this look great in a koi pond?  (especially my koi pond)



Asian Style Gates

This garden was a happy surprise.  We've been talking about adding this kind of gate to our garden entry, but hadn't found a good example in the scale similar to our yard.  This is exactly what we were looking for.




The back fence was also really beautiful and gave us some additional ideas.











And then there are the cool conifers.  I've started getting into conifers lately (not literally, because they are pokey), so I find myself fascinated by all the new colors and textures tht are available.  This display had a little bit of everything.

 

Another display had a red gate with a slightly different approach to the same gate style. 













Ever wonder what to do with that dead tree you have laying aound?  How about adding a splash of blue, white and purple paint? 

Who'd have thought you'd find that in a garden.  Can't say its a bad idea, just one I would not have thought of on my own.











Well this is a cool idea for plant markers. 

I have rocks all over the place and these labels are really easy to read - talk about creating an 'organic' look using an inorganic material (that would be a rock for those that don't remember science class)

 

Hmmmm, this was an interesting display - lots of stumps and rocks of assorted sizes.























We thought this one was alot of fun.  It was an interesting collection of glass, stone and metal. 


Though I'd love to have some of this artwork, the large metal sculpture is a little too big to fit in the yard - and I'm not going to fire up a torch and do this kind of project right now.

The glass plants were very cool.  They looked like Dr Seuss plants, which are always very appealing to us, especially the green horn shaped ones.

I also really like the way they did the glass bamboo.  I've looked at those for a couple years now and at some point I'll break down and start collecting them slowly.































We loved these (the artist is Kevin Russell) and I'd really like to have one or two.  Doesn't everyone need a few neon jellyfish??

The sky-bridge had some mini-gardens displayed.  I liked these glass vases.  I just saw some empty ones the other day and wasn't sure what one would do with them.  Thinking these may make really nice gifts in the future.  They look pretty easy to make.

This is the sort of thing I should not see at a garden show, but I immediately start searching the web for one.  If only I had a pile of spare 'copper downspout cash' floating around, because I would love to have one of these.  It really is way too cool.


I'm now kicking myself for taking a photo and not finding the card for the company that makes/sells these.  The copper wheel in the center spins with the water flow and this would look great on our deck above the rain barrel.

Shopping at the Show

You can't go to a national garden show without shopping, right?  Right!  There weren't as many plant vendors as there used to be, but we wonder if it is because this year's show was so early in February and everyone's plants are not ready to sell yet.  Not everyone is willing to keep their plants in a "cool, but not too cold" place while they wait for spring to show up.





Ozothamnus coralloides

Cool plant, huh??  It's a little green, a little white, a little slick and a little fuzzy.  It looks like a cactus, but it isn't.  It looks like a succulent, but I don't think it is.  This won't get too big, only about 15" tall and more shrubby looking over time.  I guess I better do more research before I turn this little guy loose in the yard.









Thujopsis dolabrata 'Aurea' (Aka Golden Elkhorn Cedar) 

My husband says I love this tree because it looks like a big fern.  Wish I could say he was wrong, but once again he hit the nail on the head. 

The Heaths and the Heathers

Our new little Golden Joy Heath.  The plant is about a foot tall right now, but it turns out that this is a 'tree heath'.  That means this quiet little plant is going to grow into a 6 foot tall monster in a few years. 

Apparently there is a difference between Heath and Heather.  We don't actually know the difference, other than one is a girls name and one is a boys name.  This one appears to be the boy.


Our other new one is Winter Fire Heather, so it must be a girl.  It has not flowered out yet, but that's ok.  The ones that were forced for the show were really beautiful, so we're excited to have these. 

It sounds like these will take off sometime next month and put on a show until May.

Arisaemas!! (Aka, Jack-in-the-Pulpits)

OK, so I already have griffithii, but mine was lonely, so I got him a friend to hang out with.  In truth, I'd like a little flock of them, so I'm going to expand to 2 and see if they feel more confident in the garden and spread out. 



We have tons of different strains, but this one is cool and I'd like to have more to look at.












This is our first tiny arisarum.  Its not going to look like the others and hopefully it won't get lost in the hugeness that is the rest of the garden plants.  Maybe I'll tuck it in near the tibetan poppies...hmmmm.



  

 Toad Lilies!!

Some of us are hard core 'Toad Lily' people.  I happen to have way too many of them in the garden, so of course I needed a few more. 

This year Edelweiss www.edelweissperennials.com had several interesting toads that I don't already have, so I put in a little extra time in their area. Last year I bought the prettiest Dodecatheons and look forward to seeing them again this year.

I've been looking for this big 'Tricyrtis Woodland' for a while now.  Because everyone needs a 4' tall Toad Lily dominating their yard.



The 'Tricyrtis maculata' looked nice.  I don't have alot of the really tall toads, and this one looks nice.  I'll start it this month so it has a jump on things this spring.

Yeah, this 'Tricyrtis formosa Blushing Toad' is a smaller one, but who can resist blue flowers liek this? I never get tired of looking at the structure of these flowers - there is so much going on in that tiny flower that it is just amazing. 








Veggies!!!

This year we're going to try out some different strains of onion, shallot, garlic and potatoes.

The white Ailsa Craig onions are supposed to get huge, so we'll see how that works out.

White Cipollini are sweet and about the size of a golf ball.  It sounds like they are great for roasting - yum!

Candy Apple Red onions should be sweeter than normal reds, but it sounds like they don't keep in the pantry as well.  Maybe these will get flash frozen this year.

We also picked up some Holland Red shallots and some Early Italian Purple garlic.



We're going to have a ton of potatoes this year - 5 different strains this time.  We got a blue, a red, a yellow, a white and a russet.  Some get big, some are late, some are early - so we'll do some potato experiments and see how things go.

Potatoes: Cherry Red, Russet Norkotah, All Blue, Kennebec and German Butterball.

Red Fuchsia Begonia 

Yes, this is an outside plant.  It's a Fuchsia Begonia.  It's not too tough, but worth the effort, if you get a chance to try one.  They can get 4' tall over the summer and are very cool looking.  We normally have one on the patio during the summer.


I was happy to get one again this year. Its an annual in our area but I'll bring this one indoors next winter and see if I can grow it huge.

Just the planter I was looking for. . .

What luck, I've been looking for pots just like this.  These are called Plantopia Hanging Baskets (http://www.plantopiaflowerpots.com/home2.html).  They were really reasonable for what they do - only $12 each at the show (you can get them on Amazon for $14). 

These are large planters with removable panels so you can insert plants and have them hang down.There is a reservoir at the bottom so the plants don't die of thirst in the sun. 

We're going to mount these onto our plant posts this spring.  I can't wait to give these a try.

Little Cement Koi

We stopped at our favorite statuary shop at the show.  We usually get something from them every year - this time it was half price koi.

They're pretty small, only about 7" long, but they are multi-colored and very cute.  They look drab because they are dry.  They turn bright colors when they get wet.





So Much for Spring

On the drive home we were surprised with snow.  Yep, it is early February and winter decided to come back and visit for a day or two.  Unlike the rest of the country, we really haven't had winter here, so snow in February came as a surprise.  This snow won't stay, it should be 44 degrees and rainy tomorrow, so this is just a quick blip on the radar.

In the mean time, I can do some research on what we bought today and figure out where to put this year's new plants.

Winter Project - Kitchen Facelift

This winter I just needed a change.  Something kinda dramatic and fun, but not "death-defying" fun. I generally keep busy on garden projects, but it's winter now and I didn't want to wait for spring to do something I could stand back and look at.

Hmmmm, what could I do to the house that wouldn't put us in dept or the hospital...the kitchen and bathroom both could use a little 'sprucing up'.

Besides, I hated that kitchen and we had completely ignored the house for the past few years. Anything I did in there will be a vast improvement.

Original Kitchen

When we bought the house the kitchen had (and still have) cheap white melamine cabinets, a grey counter top and white sink. The walls were originally a depressing grey, which we've long since painted over and wall papered.  The flooring was swapped out for a warmer vinyl and things were better, but the kitchen itself is still...cheap and plastic looking.

We've decided it's time to make do an actual remodel to the kitchen, but we want to make sure about our choices before we started knocking out walls. We 'test drive' our ideas first - I set a table where the new island would go (made us use the new traffic pattern) and have a few color ideas we're not completely sure about.

New Stove and sink

The wall won't come out until we're ready to fully commit to that project, but color is fairly harmless, so we're starting there.

First - Change the color of the counter tops.  Ok, so we actually bought a new stove on a killer sale first and then found our copper sink on clearance, but that is beside the point. 

Because of the beautiful black stove and copper sink, I thought black counters would look very nice, but who wants to go buy a new counter top just to check out the color? 

Roll on counter coating curing for 24 hrs

Enter Daich Coatings, out of Canada http://www.daichcoatings.com. These guys have great 'roll on counter resurfacing' products at half the price of the Rustoleum version.  So we bought a kit online and started on the counters.

The kit showed up, we watched the videos and realized that this change is not hard to do.  We sanded down our counters and started the process - primer, wait, primer again, wait, black sticky stuff, wait, black sticky stuff again, wait, sand, wait, seal, wait, seal again.

Ta-dah!! Black granite-like counters.

But it wasn't as smooth and shiny as we decided we wanted. Hmmm, time to look into the epoxy resin stuff that makes your counters look like stone or glass on top.  We really weren't too worried about the counters, since all of that will come out on the remodel. Anything I do to them can be chalked up to a 'learning experience'.

Light Cabinet Test

While we were debating on the resin idea and letting the counter sealer cure, we played with paint colors for the cabinets. We liked the rich deep mahogany as well as the lighter brown color. Keep in mind that we're not painting 'real' wood, but plastic melamine, so paint is just fine.

Dark Cabinet Test

Since we couldn't decide, we painted one cabinet the deep reddish color we liked and another set the lighter shade that looked good with the counter top.  We couldn't decide.

I added a stain to give the drawers a faux wood grain look.  We couldn't decide.

We turned the lights off at night in the kitchen and area with the mahogany colored cabinet turned into an inky, dark, scary place. We went with the lighter color cabinets and I started painting.

Finished Cabinet

The faux wood grain staining process is a little tricky and I need to redo a couple of the cabinets, now that I've got the hang of it.  It took a little finessing to figure out the order of the stains, but things are starting to look more like wood and less like plastic.

We don't plan to keep the cabinets, just  use this activity to decide what kind of wood type to start looking for.


Yes, our cabinets are glowing - cool, huh?  While painting cabinets, we decided we'd get some under-cabinet lighting, so all of us could see in the dark in the new kitchen. After some online research, we rounded up some tiny LED tape lights (thank you ebay) and stuck them up in the toe area of the cabinets and above the counters.  Boy are those things handy - they fit anywhere and you wire them together where you need them.

Cabinets wrapped up to protect during epoxy coat

After several days with the counters, we decided to try our hands at epoxy resin coats to see if we can get the counter tops to look more glossy.
We did a test on a smaller counter top, got good results and then moved onto the long counter.

Our first layer went pretty well, but had some spots that didn't cover right, so we did a second coat last night.  We've pulled out the sink - again - and made a tape dam around the openings.  This approach worked really well and we didn't get goo in our sink area.


Today the surface is curing and we will set the sink back tomorrow evening.  After that we wait one more day and then our counter tops are completely finished.

Next task - paint the upper cabinets.

More Tomato Taste Tests

My goodness the tomatoes are coming along enthusiastically this year! 

The great tomato experiment is having a wildly successful growing season and we're excited about how well the plants are producing.  We have had tons of Nicholayev Yellow Cherry tomatoes and the Sasha Altai and are now starting to look seriously at salsa as a meal option.




Last week our Azoychka's started to ripen up and the first of the Zefen Shorts have also turned pink and ready to eat.










Azoychka's are large, bright yellow tomatoes that taste great and are low acid.  Its not as sweet as the Nicholayev's, but it is very good as a sliced tomato.

We'll make a salsa out of it tomorrow and let you know how it tastes.

This one is small, but the others are much larger.  This is a vining tomato and it is covered in them.  They scare us a little bit, in truth.








The Zefen Shorts are large, pink when ripe and very good. 


Yeah, that's an apple on the right.  The tomato does not get bright red, but a soft blush color. 








Zefen Shorts are a more acidic than the others so far, with a nice tomatoey flavor and we look forward to trying some sauces with these. 


The plant is covered with tons of fat, large Zefens, so we shouldn't be short on sauce this year.

I think I put a few out in the flower bed, just in case we didn't get many tomotoes from a plant, so we may be up to our armpits in them soon.

Grandma's Relish Recipe to the Rescue

Ahhh Summer.  Its that time of year when we think of slowing down and relaxing and mother nature is picking up speed. 

 

This is that strange time when you are amazed at the amount of food that is starting to come out of your garden and the realization that there is no way you can eat all of this stuff as it comes ripe.  You'd swear its too early to start canning, but the cucumbers start to pile up alot more than you ever imagined.

 

This is also the time when that age old phrase "where did this new zucchini come from" is heard far and wide.

 

We are making that statement almost daily right now.  I thought I had outsmarted the evil zucchini plant and chosen one that was supposed to grow 'smaller' zucchini. 

 


OK, so what that REALLY means is that you will get 5 times more zucchinis, but they WILL be smaller than the normal kind you see, equaling an equal amount of zucchini over the course of the summer.

 

We're still up to our armpits in zucchini.  

No, we can't eat them all and they just keep piling up.

Visitors are not jumping up and down with glee when we try to pedal zucchini on them, either.  They are taking the japanese cucumbers we offer them, however, which has helped out immensely.
 
 

Out of desperation, I flipped through my recipe book and didn't come up with enough recipes to put a dent in the growing pile of zucchini. 

 

Then I looked through my Grandma's recipes...and there was a recipe for zucchini relish - a recipe that is probably quite a bit older than I am - and it used 10 cups of zucchini!  SCORE!!!!
 

I had one of those "country grandmas" that could cook great tasting meals with nearly nothing in the pantry.  She was also one of the best brook trout fisherman I've ever known. 

Grandma had a large collection of recipes that she carefully guarded over the years and sometimes we would be lucky enough to learn one or two of her recipes.  No one could ever 'get a copy of that recipe' out of Grandma, and I'm afraid I've picked up that same habit.  It was only after Grandma had died that Grandpa let me borrow the recipes so I could get them written down - which was an adventure of its own. 

Just in case I end up being the same way, my Mom has been very clear that SHE gets "The Black Box" (my recipes) when I die.  Hopefully it won't come to that.

 

 

So I dove into the zucchini relish recipe.  I prepped my 10 cups of zucchini, delighted with my good luck.  I started cooking the relish and decided to water the vegetable garden while it simmered. 

 

Tomatoes happy - check

Peppers happy - check

Blueberries ready - munch munch munch

Pick more cucumbers - check

Lift a zucchini leaf…..NOOOOOO!  Not MORE ZUCCHINI!!!

 

I finished going over the bushes and we took in the two new armloads of zucchini.  The relish is ready to put up in jars and we're back at square one with the zucchini pile.  Great. 

On the bright side, this zucchini relish is AMAZING!  I think we'll make some more soon...very soon.  

August Tomato Update

OK, I'm sold on the heirloom tomatoes for cool coastal regions. 

We’ve been eating the Nikolayev Yellow Cherry tomatoes for a couple weeks now and those are SO GOOD.  The plant is covered in tomatoes and they're coming on slowly, but wow.  I'm not a big 'cherry tomato' fan, but we can't stop eating these.  Like fruity cherry tomatoes that you can't stop picking. 

Next year we'll plant several more of this kind to keep us in our new favorite 'candy tomatoes'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday we tried our first Sasha Altai tomato.  Also loaded with tomatoes, but only one was ready to eat.  It was very good and hard to describe.  Not as acidic, but not as sweet, either.  The tomatoes are described as having 'complex flavor'...which explains why we really couldn't describe the flavor.

 

 

 

 

 

August 10th

 

Summer is in high gear and the garden is busy being a garden.  As for the current growth/production of the tomatoes, well July was the month of"take off and grow", and August is the month of "get busy setting tons of fruit".The indeterminate tomatoes (vining ones) are still growing like crazy and also putting on more and more tomatoes.The plants have all shot up and have been covered with blossoms and now they are covered in tomatoes. 

 

 



 



Even the peppers are taking off for the summer.  (Italian Roasters)

Nikolayev Yellow Cherry has been such a surprise.  This is a 'semi-determinate', but we think of it as a short little guy - covered with the sweetest tomatoes you've ever tasted.  We check this one over for new orange tomatoes several times a day...just in case one or two are ready to eat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heinz 9129 is loaded with tomatoes already, which surprised me.  It will be one of the latest to come ripe, but I am very impressed with how much fruit it already has and how large they are.  The tomato is stocky, very healthy and full of fruit.  We look forward to trying them out and see how they taste.

Azoychka is a vining tomato that grows and grows - and has tons of tomatoes on it.  These are on the outside of the plant as well as deep inside the shady middle.  I mistakenly thought that an heirloom may not produce as heavily as the hybrids do, but boy was I wrong on that one.