Hey All

Hostajim,

I didn't realize that you start seeds this time of year. Are they seeds from Hostas that you hybridized? That is so fascinating.
I picked up a rack with growlights off Craig's List. What can I start from seed now? Do I leave it in my potting shed or move it into the garage? I don't have any more room in my little GH.

Jim, what is a garden sphere? I have so much to learn! I would like to turn my old 1905 tiny garage into a greenhouse/gardening shed/painting studio but I just finished this renovation so that will have to wait. I really want a greenhouse! I may get some shelves & lights to start tomato seeds in my basement.
Tilly I have a house plant that looks like your Creeping Charlie but it does not flower. Maybe it is supposed to flower but I'm not giving it something it needs. It grows like wildfire.
There is a rosemary bush growing by my front porch steps and it is getting huge. When I trim it back there will be way too much rosemary to use in the kitchen so any ideas regarding using it?

Judi....yes, right in the middle. That's what I miss most, the ocean. I was able to drive to the beach during my lunch break and watch the waves come in while I ate. Or go by and sit for a while after work just to relax. We walked or rode bikes on the strand a lot. Now, I bug DH to go to the coast so I can get my ocean fix.^_^

Waiting to hear about the garden sphere, sounds interesting.

Haven't seen creeping Charlie in years, I'll have to look for some, forgot how much I liked it. I don't remember flowers though, hmmm.....something to look for. Oh boy!

Judi, Sally, the spheres are the size of play balls up to the size of an exercise ball. I make them out of mortar. and they have opening. then I finish them with Metallic Paint, gold, copper, or bronze. with a green, or Blue patina. Jim

Having spent my first 49 years in the SF Bay area and the last two in Oregon...I vote for Oregon. I just wish I had moved here sooner.
I have been back to Ca only once and could not wait to get back up here. I do miss seeing my family & friends..but they all have an open invitation to come visit here..or better yet..move north!!
Gardening is different up here..but I think I am finally getting the hang of it!

Unless I could just hang out with my DD day in and day out, I could never live here in CA !! And of course we would end up driving each other nuts then anyway. However, it has been a great visit and I will find it hard to leave tomorrow. We're going to have a very later dinner as lunch ended up being around 4:00 - in fact, it would have sufficed as dinner for me, but my DD wanted to make something special for me so I will just stuff myself. Then later we will have the ice cream she made earlier. When my SIL went to the store I jokingly (sort of!) asked him to buy me a pair of size larger jeans as my current ones are getting more snug by the minute!!!

On the other hand, I will be glad to get home to my kitties and my own space.

Jim's garden spheres are gorgeous! A must see (Jim, do you have any pictures . . . I'm thinking you do, although I actually saw some at Heidi's).

I too want a greenhouse, but there truly is not an appropriate place to put one where I live. My dream is to buy the piece of property that's close by (not adjacent, but easily accessible), cut down the alders (giving me not only firewood, but a nice view!), build a big greenhouse and bulldoze, plow the rest. I also would have to fence the entire area to keep the deer from eating everything I would love to grow - I'd like to make it a non-profit business and feed those who need help. However, in talking that over with my SIL just now, he suggested it might be more work than I'm wanting to do at this age!

More when I get home.

Murmur what an exciting idea. Perhaps those that need food could work for you in exchange for your nice fresh produce. It would make it feel less of a handout, inspire more interest in gardening, and help with the work load. What a nice dream you have!
I loved working in San Francisco but it is not a place to retire.
Jim I want to see a pic of these spheres. They sound beautiful.

Here's a sphere from a picture Gordon posted earlier in the summer - I'm sure there's a later pic of the garden all planted and grown up. Maybe on the plant swap thread.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/856578/

Carole - what a great dream. I love the idea. Thumbs up!!

It looks like a Charlie, grows like one. But it has flowers Mmmmm. I wish I knew what it is, I have lots of it, If you want some. Wonder how it would do in a hanging basket. got to try that.

This is one of Jim's spheres takin at Gordons. I have to reload the ones I took at Jims

Forgot that was a bad pic. Sorry.

Oh that's gorgeous. I want one, sounds like it's too heavy and probably too fragile to ship though.

I down loaded my 2 best pics of Jims spheres, Taking in his garden. So love his place. helping Jim LOL

This was my favorite, I want to get some too, just not ready yet.

And this is his workshop. was so cool to see how he made them.

This is the tour of Jims Garden that we all took, was so much fun. Also you will see his Hosta seelings.
Enjoy......
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/840360/

Hey Tilly,
So good of you to get such an interesting group together. I have enjoyed reading the many posts. I love your woodland garden. I am doing a similar garden. I can't believe the fall we have had. I really want to be outside, inside projects just seem a bit dull, but I guess that I just need to dream of February. Hello to all my fellow PNW gardeners.

Thanks Tilly......that's really interesting, to see how they're made.

Hi Mary, welcome to the converstion.

Mary,
I am so glad you have join us, we are a flighty bunch, we can have 5 or more Different topics going on at the same time, Its is mind boggling sometimes LOL But we all have fun and frustrations at the same time. You just have to kick in where you want too, took me a year to learn this and still learning LOL. We have another Dger that lives close to us, Neofarmer that lives a few miles from me, have met once. She is a busy girl and teaches school, hope she will show up soon, have not hear from her lately.

I want to give you a very warm welcome to PNW and hope you have fun with us.

This can get get confusing we are both Mary, I am now only Tilly and thats my story LOL I like it.......

I guess we over laped Sally, so nice to find someone new so close to me.

Done for the night, Sending all my night nights too all.
Hugs
Tills

Tills, thanks for posting pictures, I still have trouble doing it. some day I'll figure it out. Jim

Jim.
Thats why I did it, We need to pick up from last year, and find out what program you have for photos, Then I tell if can walk you thu it over the phone, I had such a hard time with Willows program. I have HP image Zone and it is really easy. Or come over... Duh.....

Had a great day today, was sooooo nice. Got all the ready for winter stuff done, I hope. I don't have a garage or a big enough storage shed for all my new outdoor furn. So this is what we can up with, The big brown mountain. LOL And did get 4 more plants in the ground. Took your advice Gordon.

Judi, d-mail me and I'll send you some pictures, of the spheres that I am making, Jim

Tills, Thank you for the link to Jim's garden tour. All I can say is WOW... His garden is beautiful and so interesting. Jim, I also love your bamboo. What do you have planted?

Lynn, thanks for the kind words, I guess I should say it's a work in progress, that I want to have a lot of transplanting done by spring of 09. I have several tours planned in the summer. this last year, I've had a lot of clearing done. so I could move plant material out, now that they are maturing. I've done a lot of work on the trails, leveling and using more logs as retainers. I'm working on growing moss on all the logs. and have put in a lot of steps down to the different levels of the garden. I will have more of my spheres in different locations. of course I have ideas on other garden art. but one thing at a time. I have a gardener to do a lot of the work I can't do anymore. because of lung problems. but I work around it and have gotten surprisingly clever about organizing my time, to include my goals. Jim

Wonderful to see that we have all found our computers again after a lovely summer and fall. Welcome to all of the newcomers as well, this is a wonderful group of creative, funny, outspoken, warm friends. I feel blessed to belong to such a wonderful group. Till's thank you for starting this thread. Rachel

Jim, wonderful setting with the slopes and placement of focal plants. Your garden is wonderful! And as a guy so is the car. LOL

I feel so happy, I do believe we are all here again, and to share are winter days together.
Pix or Rach, I have a Q about Fuzzy baby bunnie bellies, Can he stay in the cold GH or should I bring him in the house? he is doing very well.

'Vancouver' Findley opened. such gorgeous color

I have to reply to Laurie before I forget, then I can go back and read all the posts.

No, no Laurie!! We get very little rain in the summer. That's what makes this a 'mediterranean' climate, although a bit cooler. As a general rule our summers here are extremely dry. That's actually one of the reasons I wanted this plant. I thought it would be great in my front area which gets very little supplemental water in the summer. Unfortunately, i think I have to start a few more seeds because I planted out too soon and now I cannot find the little guys. Maybe the roots are still there. I'll have to check. Sad to hear that it won't make it through your summer, though. I was thinking our climates were almost exactly the same, but apparently not. This year we did get some rain during the summer, but it was an unusual year.

I completely vote many times for a potting party at Thistledowns! We can all bring our flats and help each other out, plus take home samples of everything! Then I will feel soooo much better about planting all these seeds.

I hadn't realized the that you had no rain in Summer - We on the otherhand had a torrential August this year - wettest in 100 years. Nice, eh?

So did the SE AK. Lots and lots of rain (no summer) happened here. As far as Montana we had frequent rains throughout the summer when we usually have none. It was the perfect garden year. Plants loved it!

This is true, Sofer. I have never had such a great crop of pumpkins! Bountiful and big. And lettuce was brillant, still is. Roses, great.

We are getting the rain now that I wished we had had in the summer. It was very dry. I think that is what has contributed to the brilliant fall color displays this year.

I was going through photos today - my DDIL wants to make a DVD for everyone for Christmas of family pictures. I am having a ball. Anyway, I found a notebook that my grandmother had made I think for a science class in high school. The dates in it are from the fall of 1913. It has pressed flowers in it ( kinda like an herbarium) with detailed descriptions on the plants. Then a section of notes about seeds and roots. I found it to be very interesting. I am surprised I have never seen it before. She was 14 or 15 at the time. The handwriting is extremely neat. What a treasure!! I believe she was living in Minnesota then.

Jan what a great thing to find! I love things like that - real treasures. Enjoy.
It is stormy here today. Has been dark all day. I have been experimenting with converting cake recipes to gluten-free. If anyone out there cannot have gluten I have a great recipe for carrot cake. Yum!

I will take that carrot cake recipe. I have gluten intolerance and have a friend with celiac's who I know would also love it.

Jan - that's an amazing discovery. How wonderful it's been protected all these years.

When my folks moved from their house into assisted living earlier this year, my father was going to throw away his old 1930's journal of a trip across the U.S. with his father and grandfather as well as some other "stuff" that he didn't think anybody would be interested in. Thank goodness I heard about it - I asked him to pull it out of the garbage and it turns out all his kids were interested in reading and keeping it.

They don't realize how important their experiences are to us.

Portland - what a good use for a dreary and wet day!!

Jan - we did have a cooler-than-normal summer with periods of rain, but then a very dry autumn with more sun than usual so we had a taste of those red trees, as well. What a treat for us!!

I smell a new thread coming: "Gluten Free Recipes" . . .

Gwen - have to go out now but will d-mail the recipe later tonight. I have celiac disease but I really don't mind. I cook a lot so the only times it is difficult is eating in restaurants and traveling! In portland there is a lot of awareness of the disease and there are some really great gluten-free restaurants & menus and we have access to lots of products.

I have a weird plant for you, I got this at Heidi's. It was gone, I thought it had died, did not see it all summer. Was moving some fall leaves, and look what I found. Growing rather nicely.

I wish photos that I have come across had dates and names indicated. We have no clue with some of them. And I sooo wish I had asked my dad to write down his recollections. He was the ultimate storyteller. I also found out recently from a cousin that that same grandmother had done some mid-wifery on an Indian reservation in ND. I don't know when ,cuz my dad was born in 1916.

tillysrat, I love the veining on those leaves.

Mary - it's Arum italicum. It comes out this time of year. Keep an eye on it - I think it will spread. I chickened out on planting it at my place as I have a lost of moisture and I think that's what it likes.

Oh, Jan, that's frustrating. The Internet is nice for research about these things, I think. You might do some searches and see if there are other resources that can help fill in some of the pieces.