Saturday and Sunday events

Wow, we hit 74 degrees today on Orcas Island and it felt good.  My day consisted of cleaning areas where slugs may be lurking. Along with water, water, water as the plants aren’t use to this weather. In addition, I transplanted a flat of lettuce to the herb garden which is a fenced in garden viewable to the window table in the restaurant.  

So, I am jumping to Sunday as I didn’t post my Saturday events.  I slept in today as the rain woke me up early in the morning which was appreciated by the plants.  I really enjoyed my leisure morning, drinking coffee and searching for a new good book to read. I then took my Sunday bike ride which I enjoy as I discover new parts of Orcas. After, my 10.60 ride which I use www.mapmyride.com  to record these journeys, I get ready for pizza and the sun is shining. The day seems to start off slow yet we stay pretty steady through the evening.  I enjoy these days as friends and families come to eat and enjoy each other’s company.  As the evening winds down and we clean up I take some stuff back to the kitchen when I notice two bald eagles sitting on top of two pine trees out on the back lawn. I feel so lucky, the sun is setting and their white heads shine bright. These moments capture nature at their best and remind you how amazing it is to be able to see this moment.

With this blog I am adding some pictures I have taken of the property landscape at Inn at Ship Bay.  I hope you enjoy them.

Ligularia such a beautiful plant

A row of ligularia

Red poppy

Borage, you can eat the blooms which taste like sugar

The lily pads in front of the cabin so beautiful

Today was warm and sunny, and I was very thankful as the weather has not been too cheerful. So, I started out in the vegetable garden planting swiss chard and peas then lots of watering.  Also, I did a bit of mulching so we could possibly cut down on watering. Then I had to check on the progress of the tomatoes and found there to be many starting to ripen, I was able to harvest about 15 yellow pear and cherry tomatoes. Overall, the day was a success with planting, harvesting and seeing happy tomatoes.

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Yellow pear tomato

Oh yeah look at these monsters

Had to show a picture of some ripening tomatoes

The bed where the peas now live next to the chard

The tomatillos we rescued, and mulched to retain moisture

The newly planted swiss chard

My Sunday afternoon

This Sunday I awoke with the sunshining, so I headed out to the garden. We had recently harvested the fava beans which fell over due to the rain we have been getting. I had pulled all the plants out and mowed them to put back into the soil as they are nitrogen fixing plants. Next, we put some compost on the bed and tilled it into the soil. Sadly, some worm’s lives were sacrificed. 

We then took a trip to Maple Rock Farm (MRF) where we were given tomatillos, and Swiss chard. The tomatillos were planted and next I will plant the swiss chard. This summer we have been experiencing very low temperatures, so I hope the tomatillos will not be affected by the lack of sunshine and warm weather. Then it was off to do wood fire pizza from 3 to 8 pm. We have been doing this venture for about 9 weeks. Annie is the head of operations with her sidekick Jay  who works at MRF, and then I am the one that takes orders, does the small talk. We have found this to be a great success with local families and visitors enjoying sitting on blankets in the lawn and picnic tables to boot.

The wood fire pizza setup

The portable pizza oven

We are ready for patrons and the sun is shining, hooray

Some lavender for decoration then our beverage selection

Oh, there is nothing better than Orcas clouds to end the night

This is the view from the back lawn, amazing

A day of discovery in the garden

The most exciting thing about gardening to me is there is always something new to discover. At times I feel like a plant detective, assessing the scene, collecting evidence and going to the lab to research the findings (i.e. my cabin, ha ha).  This is the reason I love horticulture/gardening, you are always dealing with something new and trying to solve the problems.  Gardeners are dedicated folk that   tend to their precious plants in hopes to evade the lurking attackers hanging around the next bed.  I write this because I was doing my regular morning garden assessment when I came upon some new discoveries. So, I received these grafted eggplants from a WSU organic vegetable class that’s main teaching focus was this new grafting technique on varieties that are susceptible to verticullium wilt (VW). I received four plants all of which were grafted using a different technique to test the resistance to VW.  They are all planted in the greenhouse so the temp stays warm as the weather here fluctuates and eggplants like it hot. Well, I was excited to see that flowers were forming and possible eggplant eating in the future.  Yet, as I was assessing this morning three out of the four plants are slower growing and have yellow limp leaves, ugh! Then I was looking over the tomatoes when I discovered more VW devastation and to top it off the newly planted lettuce has vanished with no evidence of the culprit.  All this news doesn’t deter me from gardening, it makes me want to keep, keeping on as my great grandmother would have said. 

Eggplants one in the front in sad the one in the back is better.

One of the eggplants with limp leaves.

Ugh! possibly VW

Yummy! tomatoes so big

More tomatoes

Heirloom blend lettuce, lookin good

Hooray, I love seeing lady bugs in the garden on spearment

Boo, only one lettuce plant left

Additional Friday Harbor Pics

350 yr old tree used as shade back when this was a base camp

English camp boxwood parterre

Coreopsis in the English Camp garden

English Camp garden, oooh I love it, boxwood paterre.

The walkway I feel as though I am in the south

Myself, wanting to capture this moment

Roche Harbor gardens

The historical hotel

The gardens with old lime building in the back

Monkshood

The garden with lime building and breakfast cafe behind

The garden with the hotel behind

Angel's Trumpet

The Lime and Cement Co.

The marina

First off Island trip, we chose Friday Harbor

So, we set off for the 12:30 ferry to Friday Harbor which takes a little over an hour. When we arrived the ferry dock is right in the town. We checked out town with lots of shops, restaurants, boutiques and a fabulous used book store. We ate at The Market Chef fun place with outside seating, soups, salads, espresso and desserts. After, our stroll through town hit up the chamber of commerce to get maps and a layout of places to visit. We talked with Mary who informed us of places to visit and great maps. So, here starts our adventure. We decided to drive out to Cattle point lighthouse. The drive was beautiful  with rolling hills, prarie grasses, cattle and hay. We stopped at a beach called American camp then journeyed on to Cattle point to see the lighthouse and breath taking views of the ocean. Our next stop was at the Westside Preserve. As we got out to look around I saw to whales about 100 ft away. I gasped and ran down the trail to get a better look, amazing. As we were walking back to the car a local told us the whales would be at the Lime Kiln Point State Park in a few minutes, so we thanked him and ran to the car. When we arrived at the park there were many people camped out waiting for a viewing, so we did the same and ended up seeing 4 whales. I think that was the highlight of the day as that was my first time to see whales in wildlife. Next, we checked out the English Camp which had a beautiful garden, 350 year old tree and historic buildings. Our last stop of the day was at Roche Harbor a beautiful marina with shops, hotel, condos, and two dinner restaurant's. Oh, we had a wonderful fun packed day and now we are heading to catch the 10 pm ferry back to Orcas.

American Camp beach

American Camp



Cattle Point Beach



Sunday pizza canceled due to rain

Sunday Pizza day, so I have until 2pm to do my thing. I made coffee and read some of The Art of Power by Thich Nhat Hanh. This book is very insightful as I am currently learning about The Five Spiritual Powers, and I have only gotten through two. The first is Faith and as he describes it is about confidence and trust. It is about having a path and knowing where you are going as that is power. The second is Diligence in your practice whatever it may be. In addition, he talks about watering seeds of positive thought and positioning yourself in environments where these seeds are nourished. Where negative seeds are not nourished and are kept dormant. I hope this post makes sense and I am not going into la la land. After, my morning read I ventured to the garden and checked all the plants out and all was well.

So, I just found out I am going to be in the Steve Braun Triathlon September 5th. It entails a .4 mi swim, 3.5 mi run around Cascade Lake and a 17 mi bike ride. I will be doing the 3.5 mi run and I have been practicing along with timing myself cause this is my first race, yeah! I also have taken up exploring the island on my bike. I love the feeling of being on my bike, free, fast, wind through my hair ha ha, and seeing the island as a cyclist.

Rainy day on Orcas

I had a hard time waking up this morning as it was dark and I heard the patter of rain outside. I took my time getting up and around, making coffee then reading one of the many books I have. As the rain let up some, I decided to wonder out to the greenhouse and tend to the tomatoes, which have grown so much in the two months I have been here. We are experiencing some verticillium wilt which is also known as the sleeping plant syndrome. The tomatoes have some very nice size fruit which is hard for some plants to hold them up. In addition, I have been seeing many aphids covering the leaves of the tomatoes and some leaves are curling. I wondering if this is due to the aphids as they vector disease. In other morning duties I came upon a baby bird who was standing in an inch of rain water in the wheel barrow and still breathing. I thought what is she doing? I stood around and watched but I didn't want to interfer with nature. So, I did some other task came back bird was still there and alive. Yet, I check on her the third time with finding her dead, so I had a little ceremony for the bird. She was buried by the foxglove.

The tomatoes in the greenhouse after two months, so big!

The brown garbage can stores the water for the tomatoes as I water by hand.

Heirloom blend lettuce with fallen over fava beans behind,

Possibly being taken by the vertcilluim wilt (VW), a soil borne disease

I think here is another victim to VW ugh!

Now the Aphids are out in full force which is making the tomatoes leaves curl.

Same plant as above, those aphids have no mercy

Well, on to happy plants. cucumbers and squash which we pulled out due to the rotting. Never a dull moment in a gardeners life.

The bed behind the greenhouse with kale, lettuce, arugala which is just emerging and mustard