Seed Your Future is launching its ‘From Classroom to Career’ year-end campaign to equip teachers with career-focused horticulture resources.
The post Seed Your Future’s Year-End Campaign to Grow a New Generation of Horticulturists appeared first on Greenhouse Grower.
Seed Your Future’s Year-End Campaign to Grow a New Generation of Horticulturists Read More »
Last week our local weather people started throwing around warnings that the BIG WET was about to start; “just two more dry days”… “this is the last dry day before.” They love to get all alarmist, it’s not like there aren’t dry days in this week’s forecast. Still, I am not one to waste an opportunity to be outdoors while the weather is good, so I decided to visit Leach Botanical Garden in SE Portland.
The containers by the entrance were all sorts of fun.
And the gravel sitting area just inside the entrance looked like something pulled from a big fancy Botanical Garden, not a garden near a kinda sketchy neighborhood in SE Portland.
My last visit to this garden was in 2022, that was after the big redo and I wasn’t completely onboard with the changes (pre redo visits that I wrote about were in 2015 and 2010). This time the changes felt better, probably both becasue they’d had time to mature and I wasn’t seeing them for the first time.
The first section that you walk through is the pollinator garden. While it’s not my thing per se, I still enjoyed it. It’s wonderful to be completely emersed in plants.
There are a few stylized art benches in the garden, the addition of pumpkins made it all feel grounded in the season.
Normally I wouldn’t have given a second thought to the tall conifers that surround this garden, but after the 2024 Fling up in the Puget Sound area and hearing people from other parts of the country in awe over our tall conifers, well, now I notice them.
They call that building the Arbor, but really I was more interested in the tree fern. It was labeled as Balantidium antarcticum, but better known as Dicksonia antarctica.
There was more pollinator garden to investigate before walking through the “Arbor”…
Some sort of Persicaria I believe.
I couldn’t find a label for this random stem, but appreciated it’s color.
The “Arbor” from it’s backside.
Another Dicksonia antarctica.
And a Wollemia nobilis…
I stood on my tip toes to get a shot of the cones.
Looking through the covered “Arbor” and out at the fireside terrace with its fire pit and stone benches.
There were containers on the far side of the benches, the plantings interesting.
Astrolepis sinuata
What a darling mushroom.
The elevated tree walk loops around, beginning and ending at the fireside terrace.
Of course I walked the loop and enjoyed looking down on another walkway and a border of Tetrapanax papyrifer.
The Leach home visible from the tree walk. The garden is on land that Lila and John Leach owned for years, their home built in 1936 (more on the history of the garden here).
In a bit we’ll be down on that narrow path behind the house, where I’ll complain once again about how under planted the excellent rock garden is.
Walking through the wild part of the garden…
And now down by that rock garden. Why aren’t there more interesting plants in there!?
I did find one lonely agave, there used to be a dozen or so.
Down on the lower level now, the home and the rock garden both visible.
I adore this wall and fountain.
There’s another lower level below the home, it borders Johnson Creek, that’s where I am now. The yellow leaves belong to Haiesia monticola ‘Rosea’ and the apricot leaves were labeled as Oxydendrum arboreum, although the shape seems slightly off from what I would expect from that plant.
The same trees from a different vantage point.
Nice mass planting of Woodwardia unigemmata.
A sign put out by the garden staff? Or perhaps an anonymous fan of the mollusks…
The home and gift-shop from the opposite side of the earlier photo. Time to climb those stairs up, up, up to the top level where I started this journey.
Along the way I had to stop and appreciate the Arctostaphylos manzanita ssp. laevigata. This manzanita and I go way back, it’s one of the first I admired here in Portland.
Maybe Salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’? I’m not much of a salvia gal, but I love those dark calyx.
Anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’
I’m back up at the pollinator garden level now, and don’t remember these dried seed heads from my earlier walk through.
Oh and what’s this? Yep, an off limits staff-only area. Okay time to leave before I’m stopped for questioning.
A stroll through Leach Botanical Garden Read More »
It’s been nothing but full of water. I’m at the top of a hill, so I had hopes for drainage but I think I’m on all clay.
Is broad forking for the foreseeable future a reasonable idea?
I plan to put in quite a few fruit and nut trees… should I delay that? I’m of the mind to just put them in and see what happens.
Tons of radishes?
Zone 9a PDX
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I dug a little trench to see what would happen after a good rain… Read More »
Turmeric (curcuma longa) growing strong – this location has less that 1/8 “ of loam over hard packed clay due to past ag practices- the turmeric struggled- but within three short years of chopping dropping inga species, growing a variety of plants within the space, adding rabbit manures during the dormant times and using the branches for sides of beds- we can dig down and find 3-6 inches of rich black loam ! #soilthemoreyouknow
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I run a small permaculture setup with pasture rotation, deep mulch, and hot composting. To avoid heavy treatments, I sprinkle a natural mix over feed daily with black pepper, chili flakes, garlic, oregano, and flax seed. I didn’t stop eating the eggs, and within 4–6 weeks I noticed thicker shells and cleaner plumage. For reference, I use Roostys Dewormer for the mix, but clean water, dry bedding, and rotation mattered just as much.
My rough dose is 1 teaspoon per day for 3–7 birds, increasing slightly for larger flocks just enough to coat the feed. I pay closer attention during high humidity, wet soil, or when wild birds are more active.
I’d love to hear from more experienced folks. Do you go with daily prevention or step in only when you see signs? Which herbs and spices have helped in your mix, for example home-grown oregano, garlic, or hot pepper?
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Do you use a daily parasite protocol or only treat when symptoms show up in your hens? Read More »
Due to circumstance I have to move a pear tree that’s approx 2m tall and setting fruit. Any tips? Same goes with strawberries and need to move rhubarb too. Middle of spring in my area
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Deciduous transplant in spring Read More »
The highest priority must be to ensure land-clearing is properly regulated to save our native forests
Australia’s parliament will soon consider proposed reforms to federal environmental laws – known as the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Unfortunately, signals from the government suggest this may be another reform process that fails to deliver the progress we need – despite everyone agreeing that Australia’s biodiversity is in catastrophic decline.
When introduced, the EPBC Act was a historic reform by a conservative government. For the first time since federation, the Australian parliament exercised its full suite of constitutional powers to regulate environmentally harmful actions on all tenures.
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Journal of Integrative Plant Biology, EarlyView.
The Southern Ocean absorbs nearly half of all ocean-stored human CO2, but its future role is uncertain. Despite models predicting a decline, researchers found that freshening surface waters are currently keeping deep CO2 trapped below. This stratification effect may be only temporary, as intensifying winds bring deep, carbon-rich water closer to the surface. If mixing increases, the Southern Ocean could begin releasing more CO2 than it absorbs.
Melting ice is hiding a massive climate secret beneath Antarctica Read More »
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