Gardening in My Rubber Boots

Jan 1

Happy Frost New Year!!

Dec 28

I Spy: Vertical Gardens in Europe

While wondering around France and England this summer I noticed vertical gardens everywhere. While some vertical gardens were man-made, most occurred naturally in the many historic stone structures. Read more

Dec 26

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My Chicken Coop’s Carnivorous Bog Garden

In early October I created a carnivorous bog garden outside my chicken coop. It’s a sunny spot that I’ve done little with in the past. Plus, we were having problems with flies because of the proximity to the chicken coop. I didn’t know much about carnivorous plants and frankly didn’t think they’d survive outside in our zone 8a garden. Once I knew more about carnivorous bogs, it was a no-brainer. I needed to have one.

Three things happened this past year that convinced me I needed a carnivorous bog garden:

I visited the new Master Gardener carnivorous bog demo garden at McCollum Park
When volunteering at the fair, our Master Gardener booth was next to the bog garden display
I learned all about carnivorous bog gardens during one of my perennial study group meetings

I do recommend talking to someone in your area that knows about setting up a bog garden. When I visited Odean’s Nursery in Snohomish, she gave me handouts on creating a bog garden and walked me through the process. It was a huge help. I can’t wait to see my new pitcher plants gobble up all the flies this summer. Here’s how I created my bog garden:

To start, I dug a big hole. Filled the bottom with sand and added a plastic pond liner. I also provided a water runoff to keep the plants from drowning.

I added a plastic tub to act as a water reservoir and collect rain water from the rain chain/gutter. I then filled the "pond" with peat moss and perlite.

Next I watered the bog using water from our rain barrel and planted my carnivorous plants from Oudeens nursery.

I also added larger stones to hold down the plastic and smaller drain rock to cover any remaining plastic.

Adding the carnivorous bog helps our garden be more sustainable. The coop and bog garden work together.

To keep the chickens from falling in the reservoir and add a bit of whimsy, I added glass pond floats. So far the chickens are leaving the new garden alone. .

Dec 15

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What’s Blooming December 15

I thought about wondering around in the wet/dark/cold garden to find some winter interest (a.k.a dead plants) to photograph but decided to share something that’s actually blooming instead:

Pink/Red Christmas Cactus

Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day takes place on the 15th of every month and all started with May Dreams Gardens.

Dec 12

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A Picasso Fan is Born

Just the other day we went to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) to check out the Picasso exhibit on loan from Paris’ Musee National. It’s a great exhibit. I was always under the impression that Picasso created one style of painting, and was pleasantly surprise by his diversity. His creations were made using paint, charcoal, wood, metal, clay, photography and etc. It almost seems as though he would get inspired and grab the first thing in front of him to create his masterpiece.

It was also fascinating to see how his style changed over 50+ years – SAM has his paintings/art in order to show his different ‘periods.’ As an artist he was ever changing, experimenting, growing, and learning. That’s what makes true genius. I was never a real fan of his art but I’m now intrigued by the artist.

I recommend getting the audio if you see this exhibit. It shares some interesting stories and adds to the experience. It was fun listening to someone’s opinion on what they thought his ‘message’ was with each piece, because when they asked Picasso he would never admit their interpretation was correct. It’s almost like he didn’t want his creations to be solved like a puzzle, but ever flowing and changing like he was.

I also realized I had something in common with Picasso. Chickens. Below is his Farmer and Nude. Surrounded by Hens. I was surprised he painted/sculpted chickens, bulls, sheep, cats and other farm animals quite often. I’ll admit, I went to the exhibit because it was next to my work and I got in for free, and I came out a fan.