Rats dug up 5 of my snow pea plants. Peanut butter baited traps are going back out in specific spots - tonight.
I tied some remaining snow pea plants up. More snow peas will be transplanted in 2 weeks.
My other plant seedlings are slowly growing in one small DIY greenhouse.
Pink purple #DamesRockets are blooming, all around our gardens. Often mistaken with phlox. Phlox has 5 flower petals. Dames rockets have 4. It's an established invasive on Vancouver Island. I leave it as it's not choking out other plants & pollinators love them. I remove many other invasives.
A couple weeks ago I followed along as volunteers from the disaster relief organization Team Rubicon removed burnable material from Zintel Canyon in Kennewick, Washington, as part of an effort to mitigate wildfires in the area. Kennewick has a higher fire risk than 92% of U.S. communities. Team Rubicon was started by a US Marine Corps veteran in 2010, traveling to Haiti after that year's devastating earthquake and has grown to include more than 160,000 volunteers helping respond to or mitigate disasters both in the US and internationally. Photographed for Crosscut/CascadePBS ( @cascadepbs ).
Thanks to Genna for taking the pitch and to Mai for her reporting on the piece, published this week on the Cascade PBS website.
(took a little break from posting over the past few weeks, but hopefully I'll get back into the regular swing of things)
Lacy #phacelia aka #purple#tansy is native to NW Mexico & SW USA - it's in the borage family. I've been using them as part of #pollinators#garden & as a natural aphids #PestControl for food plants. This pretty flowering #plant attracts hoverflies & those insects love eating aphids. When it's done flowering - you can cut it down & use cuttings as #GreenManure.
Indoors - one of my tiger #orchids bloomed last night.
Outdoors - 1st #IrisNigricans, #NationalFlower of #Jordan bloomed & more to open this week. One of my Syrian friends gave me a pot of rhizomes 3yrs ago.
More grape soda #irises bloomed too.
This week for #MountainMonday I have the iconic scene of Mount Shuksan and Picture Lake in Washington State. One of the most photographed mountains in the area, and you can see why.
Slick bumpy forest service roads often washed out, hugged by barely contained forest, with towering mountains shadowing the skyline. no better begin to adventure #hiking#nature#pacificnorthwest#adventure
This is so many levels of fucked up by government. They are selling invasive species to unaware citizens. This should be #ILLEGAL. The more #daphne spreads, the more this #corrupt BC NDP govt will use that as justification to spray more #toxic#glysophates over forests & more greenspaces!
Just around the corner from the cafe patio, with the gorgeous white wisteria trees, I saw these pretty #pink rose #azalea flowers 😍 They were so lovely!
I love these #birds 😍 A whole bunch of them returned last week, to nest at the docks at paddling club. I enjoyed viewing them, before boarding dragonboat for our weekly team practice.
From left to right, on stone beach - red lentil humus with Nori powder as well as some cats tongue pesto swirled thru, crackers made from chia/flax, pumpkin seeds and dried kelp as well as a big pot of tea w kelp, spruce tips.
Some of my #nightshade#starterPlants - #eggplants & #tomatoes.
I was behind on seed sowing starts again this past Winter!
I don't transplant any nightshade plants out into beds/pots until at least 2-3 flowers appear on starters. That helps the transplants to do much better - they're stronger if you wait a bit longer to transplant out.
Our white #lilac tree is now over 8 feet tall.
I originally #propagated this from a small cutting, taken for free from a construction demolition site, 10 yrs ago.
It smells fabulous 🥰
My #cantaloupe#seedlings.
Hopefully I'll get more than 2 cantaloupes this year. Last year was my first time trying to grow cantaloupes. Most of them failed due to neglect. I was too stressed/overwhelmed after my Dad died from long covid cardiac arrest early last June - many of my plants didn't make it.
My friend, Tom, is a private #gourmet chef & he also teaches about #WildFoods#foraging, harvesting from wild nature & cooking with wild foods. He taught a seaweed #ForagingWorkshop recently, at Whiffin Spit.
Check out his website, for info on past & upcoming events. Next #EducationalWorkshop is in late June - Cooking In Nature.
Mom & I went for a lovely morning #NatureWalk at #ElkLake after my denturist appointment.
We only saw 2 other people on the trail. We had our morning tea, at the lake.
2nd blooming of our front garden #rhododendron bush tree. It has its first blooms in February & the colour is light pink. It changes to this deep #red colour, on 2nd bloom times 🥰
9.37 miles easy run @ #SVT, also testing another pair of #shoes: ASICS Gel-Nimbus 25. Result is not good: the lateral side of my right foot hurts after the run (not during)! I blame it on the high stack of cushioning: my theory is my natural reflex to counterbalance the unevenness of the trail surface is interfered/distorted by the cushioning. Does that sound plausible?
For folks unable to #GetOutside today/this week, please enjoy some vicarious #NatureImmersion via my musical slideshow, from Mom & daughter nature walk, yesterday morning.