It will be a long time before I top the weekend I just had. My weekend was full of my favorite things: being with my best friend in the whole world, gardening in the sunshine, eating bratwurst at Otto’s, sharing Sunday brunch with friends, taking country drives, playing with ceramics in my studio, tango dancing until my feet are sore…
My best friend Erika, who lives a couple states away, was in town and I was lucky enough to spend a great chunk of time with her. She is one of those lifelong friends that you never have to play catch-up with. We just pick up wherever we left off, diving right into the meat of our lives, by passing any small talk, laughing with each other until our sides hurt. There was a big Argentinian tango festival in town this weekend and it was great to go out with her to the dances, just like the old days. (Something I don’t talk about much on this blog, but I’ve been a tango dancer for 8+ years…)
All weekend in Portland the weather was absolutely gorgeous – nothing but sunshine. Erika and I took a long country drive out to One Green World together as I explained the plans for the garden. We both share a love for gardening, so it was fun to bring her up to speed on the latest food forest plans for our home. The car was packed to the brim with new goodies for the yard.
It was quite a shopping spree at the nursery, but I luckily didn’t make any impulse buys. There were a few plant substitutions I had decided on earlier this week. I had chosen to duplicate some plants in my earlier design, but I went back in and diversified some things. For example, I already have four blueberry bushes, so rather than add more I added gooseberries instead. Instead of buying two beautyberry bushes, I bought one and added in a strawberry tree.
The strawberry tree (pictured left) is a lovely evergreen that should grow to 8′ in height. The bark is red and the leaves are a glossy green. It produces fruit that apparently resembles strawberries in flavor. Pretty cool!
We planted everything together, which went quick and felt very fitting to have Erika there making a permanent impact on our small plot together. The two flowering quinces (pictured right) are just about ready to explode with scarlet blossoms. Their branches are quite contorted, which it gives it almost a Japanese appearance. I also picked up a couple cornelian cherry bushes that put on a show of yellow blossoms in early March – one of the first things to bloom. The garden should start looking alive very soon!
I am honestly so content with my weekend that I think I will just end on this note and roll off to bed. I am pretty tired from the late night tango dances and the yard work planting our new loot. I am so thankful to have such a full life and such wonderful people to share it with.
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J!
I’m about to get the plants for my garden and while I have it well thought out and was going to purchase through a catalog, I’m beginning to think I need to see the plants and walk around them and choose them individually. Have you found that One Green World is the best place in Oregon to buy plants for a permaculture urban garden? Are they helpful and knowledgeable enough to direct towards and away from plants based upon a napkin sketch of my yard and intentions? Others I have found online are Fern Tree Nursery, Fruit-Tree Nursery (online only?), and Whitman Farms. I’m looking forward to a weekend link yours ~ ending with a yard full of potential!
Thanks Jay
Ethan, unfortunately One Green World is not the traditional nursery open to the public, so going out there is a little anti-climatic. You go into their little office and tell them what you want from the catelog, they gather it up and bring it out. The people they have at the front desk vary in helpfulness levels.
I suggest writing them an email about plants you are considering and giving them details about what you are after so they can make a recommendation between varieties. The owners themselves are great, so hopefully they will be the ones responding to your email.
I also suggest visiting their Fall orchard tours to see the actual plants at maturity. With some of the more unusual plants, this is your only opportunity to see what they will look like once full grown! And also to taste the fruit!
There are tons of great places to buy plants for the urban permaculture garden in Portland. I just like these guys because they carry such a wide range of unusual plants and emphasize food production. For example, I love dogwood trees, but it’s even better to have a dogwood that also produces interesting and delicious fruit!
I have a post on my tree-species blog about the Strawberry tree. I took some great pictures of the fruit and flower of this tree, which goes by the name Madroño here in Spain. The fruit is edible and has a pleasant taste.
Thats for the strawberry tree pictures! I can’t wait to see the little green fuzzy fruit turn red over the season.