Skywatch Friday, 1st time participating!

My sweetie workin' it on his trusty TYM tractor, the "Crouching Tiger". Go, baby!

Log Garden Bench, and more new Native plants

My sweetie made me this bench from a log! It's perfect for taking a shady break from my battles with Canadian Thistle.


It is next to one half of a huge boulder. The other half is about 10 feet away. We separated the two halves with a mighty effort of the tractor. I figure that the effect of a big tree falling on the boulder is what split it - what else could it have been? That would have been during the first logging here, around 45 years go. The second logging was cutting trees too small to break a boulder this size. Anyway that's my boulder fantasy. The bench is being modeled by my constant gardening companion, Pepper.

I had a great trip to Kingston, WA yesterday. I heard that the Stillwaters Environmental Education Center was having a plant sale and figured it was a good excuse to cruise over there. Kingston is gorgeous. What a nice little city!! Great water views, fun small-town feel. Nice Farmer's Market too! I'll be going back, that's certain.

I picked up some more native plants that are new to my gardening. I adopted two young Philadelphus Lewisii, AKA Mock Orange. I recall a garden party that had a huge mass of Philadelphus and oh, the fragrance... a lovely cloud of white flowers. The foliage out of bloom time is kind of plain and scratchy, but the flowers more than make up for that. Thanks to Washington State University for the first two plant links and photos.


Another interesting find is Achlys triphylla, the Vanilla Leaf plant. What a neat low-growing little woodland perennial, a cute "goose-foot" shaped leaf that wags in the breeze with a separate little stem that comes up with the flower. I hope to have a nice colony of this stuff going in a few years.

Topping off my selections from Stillwaters are a few baby Cornus sericea ssp Occidentalis, AKA Red Osier Dogwood tree. I adore red twigged plants against winter snow, and after seeing the potential for snow here, I'm planning on this effect.

Thanks to Mostly Natives Nursery for the photos.