flowers and plants

Well a mother couldn't ask for more flowers than I have blooming in the gardens around our house this spring. We have had constant blooms since the middle of February or before when the woods violets and crocuses started blooming in the front and backyard. Since then we have had bleeding hearts, rosemary, thyme, lavender, buttercups, tulips, daffodils, false Solomon's seal, trillium, azaleas, some kind of blueberry bush with luscious smelling flowers the bees just love, columbine and now irises, rhododendron, some kind of puffy flower bush, another ground cover with blue flowers, violets we planted out front, heather, another white flower vine in the front of the trees, beautiful red leaves on a large bush, not to mention the reddish flowers our big silver maple has, the color of the Japanese maple and now finally roses! And would you believe there is more to come that the former owner planted AND some the kids and I have planted, not to mention the mums we transplanted from our last place and of course the borage flowering away already with the vegetables, some strawberry plants already blooming, a few tomato blossoms. I planted some seeds for a cut flower garden for the kids to pick whenever they want. It smells heavenly when you walk outside the front or back and is amazingly beautiful.

We went on an edible plants walk yesterday with some friends. A friend opened her home and yard (located out in the Columbia Gorge in Washington) and showed us a few tasty plants, known to others as mainly weeds. It is sad that so much of our knowledge is lost to herbicides sprayed everywhere in an effort to preserve uniformity. I was happy to learn a little more about plants, the kids got to try some wood sorrel, Samuel braved the nettles and cut some for me to make tea and later we had lunch and they were able to play with friends. We came home with some daylilies, who I planted by the tomatoes and some lemon balm who I planted next to a large plot of mixed mint. Hooray!

Plants we learned about and tasted on the walk:
nettle (we have harvested nettle on our own on Sauvie Island and I drink it in tea. This is the first time I have seen it with flowers!)
cleavers(first time trying this one which is supposed to be great for your lymph system and liver)
day lily (you can eat the thick base and the bulbs)
wood sorrel(this is great and tastes green at first and then after chewing it is tart because of the oxalic acid)
miner's lettuce(glad to have this pointed out to me because it has been tricky for me to remember- tastes like a green!)
medicinal tansy(not the one they warn you about)
lemon balm(not wild but really good and I brought some home!)

The first of our Portland roses are in bloom. They surround our house in front and back and on the side near the patio. These little yellow ones are right out the front door. Eva hugs the flowers and wants in on the action of the picture taking!



These are our irises, who I love and who remind me of when I was growing up. There was a patch of irises that bloomed in the lilacs, but not every year and I never knew why. It was a real treat for me when they bloomed and no one else seemed to know they were there. I was thrilled to find so many in this yard. These, like many of the flowers and other plants in the yard, are native to the Pacific Northwest and so grow effortlessly, as they were intended!




The purple flowers, also natives, are columbine and a new flower for me. The park rangers at the nature preserve told me about them and gave me a little poster with pictures of native plants on it. Lovely!

Samuel and Eva pose for me as they go off with Daddy on a *mission*. I am not supposed to know they are going to look for gifts for me for Mother's Day. And at the same time I am supposed to know because they are excited and please. But if asked, I say nothing and talk about how excited I am to take a shower or a nap or something. It is a fine line to walk, being a mother.

This is an impromptu garden Eva and Samuel planted for me in a dirt patch in the lawn. No grass was growing there and it called out to them one fine spring day. And now, voila, there are turnips galore and a bean plant and Eva planted carrots too. I showed Samuel and he was dumbfounded. He said he didn't even mean for it to turn out. Amazing!