This simple Vertical Garden with Removable Rain Gutter Planters makes a great weekend project! Made out of 2x4's and vinyl rain gutters, this project is easy enough for even the most novice DIYer. (If we can build it, so can you!) This vertical garden planter is attractive, convenient, and (bonus!) it can provide a lovely backdrop for a backyard refuge. (I'm planning to build a couple more and string them with twinkle lights in the winter!) This project kicked off when we saw a … [Read more...]
Little Oven Annie’s Cherry Tomato Tart
Feta, caramelized onions, and grape-leaf walnut pesto create a savory bed for fresh cherry tomatoes in this beautiful Cherry Tomato Tart. Our garden is yielding a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes right now, so I decided it was time to tackle something I've been putting off - a real tomato tart. However, even after spending some significant time cruising Pinterest for inspiration, everything I could up with sounded Blahh. Or had already been done... twice. So I put the idea on the back … [Read more...]
City of Roses – Portland’s International Rose Test Garden
We took a trip to Portland's Rose Garden last weekend. As I wandered through the seemly endless rows of roses, I found myself contemplating this quote by Dale Carnegie: One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today. While I embrace Mr. Carnegie's sentiment, I wonder if he might have chosen his words … [Read more...]
Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival
Last Wednesday my sister and I had the rare chance to spend the day together, and her only request was to go “somewhere pretty.” So I took her to one of the prettiest places I know of in the Portland area – the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Woodburn. This time of year, the tulip fields are a photographers dream – they are so full of vibrant color that images almost paint themselves into the camera. The Tulip Festival, which began in 1985, is a tradition started by Ross and Dorothy … [Read more...]
How to Grow Rosemary
A Guide for the Horticulturally Challenged Fresh rosemary. Nothing quite like it. Beautiful, organic and free - I think everyone with a kitchen knife and a slow cooker should have a rosemary plant of their own. Mr. B takes care of our yard. He mows and weeds, fertilizes and gardens. Sometimes I help, but I'm careful to let him take charge because it is a well-documented fact that, if my thumb were a Crayola crayon, it would be a shade somewhere between Eggplant and … [Read more...]
