Bloomtown

Bloomtown gets mention in Willamette Week

Bloomtown got a nod, two actually, in the most recent edition of Portland's Willamette Week print edition; the story is available online as well. The article, Getcha Hands in the Dirt, mentions this blog and our vegetable garden project here and the Nursery is mentioned here.

This week's paper has a pull out section called Habitat: The Dirty Hands Issue that is focusing on our ever-expanding interest in growing our own food. Even if it's just a bit in a few containers on a balcony or perhaps a more production-oriented venture, such as what Laurie and I have embarked upon that I've been blogging about here. Either way people seem to be tuning into the satisfaction of growing their own.

They've put together a great collection of resources ... check it out.

Bloomtown Nursery Update - Now Open on Sundays!

Good news! Effective this weekend, Bloomtown Nursery will now be open Sundays.

Our updated hours:

Tues - Sat: 9 am to 5 pm, Sun: 10 am to 4 pm

For a map & directions go here.

Master Recycler Plastic Roundups

Spring Master Recycler Plastics Roundup will take place on two Saturdays and four locations:

Saturday May 3rd 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. at two locations

• Southeast Portland: Floyd Light Middle School 10800 SE Washington MAP 
• North Portland: Hosted by Kaiser Permanente West Interstate 3325 N Interstate (Off Fremont and Overlook Park) MAP 

Saturday, May 17th 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. at two locations:

• Lake Oswego: Co-hosted by Shorenstein Realty Services LP and Autodesk, Inc. 5400 Meadows rd. MAP 
• PCC Rock Creek PCC Rock Creek Campus 17705 NW Springville rd lot D MAP 

Click here to see what materials are accepted and how to prepare them for the Roundup

For more information email: Master Recyclers

Vegetable Garden Update: Work party on a cool spring day

It's been pretty hectic between the nursery, client work, and teaching but we finally got back out to the "farm" for a work party on Sunday.

We got a tremendous amount of work done in a short time. We got our remaining two raised beds into position and filled with soil; bringing our total to the ten 4' x 8' raised beds, as planned.

We had some extra soil so have started an additional in-ground garden space. We'll grow the large scrambling plants like summer & winter squash in these beds and we'll choose an area of this bed where we'll grow sunchokes on a permanent basis (you can't easily remove them once you get them started, so think carefully about your placement before planting).

We did some additional sowing of our cool season crops such as spinach, argula, carrots, and scallions and a first sowing of a couple of interesting broccoli varieties and kale, and some other things that I've likely forgotten at this moment.

It's so exhilarating to see the seedlings emerge. We had our first taste of greens direct from the soil ... thinnings from our arugula and radish sowings from a couple of weeks back. Can't wait until we have enough for a real meal!

HPSO Spring Plant Sale & Garden Festival - April 12 & 13, 2008

The cashier's fingers fly, her concentration is intense but her smile radiates. The exchange of currency is enthusiastic as beaming shoppers, delighted with their acquisitions, recount tales of the hunt with their neighbors in line. Reminiscent of stories told around the fire, each shopper gesturing wildly, like dancers of old. This community of kindred souls comes together for the spring hunt, eager for the season to unfold into summer and its promised bounty. In fall, they will gather again, laying in a larder of color and texture for the upcoming spring. And so the cycle goes.

Many people, myself included, look forward to this sale, put on by the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon (HPSO), with great anticipation. Already one of the largest and most extensive plant sales in the Northwest and now -- a new venue, an expanded purpose. What an exciting year for the HPSO Plant Sale!

Let me repeat that: The sale venue has changed. After being held for many years at the Washington County Fairgrounds, the sale is being relocated to the PORTLAND EXPO CENTER. The primary benefits of this move include room for more plant vendors, the garden art vendors will be under cover and within the same location, and a more comfortable shopping experience for all, with plenty of room for some exciting new activities and participants.

One of the many exciting new features of the festival is the addition of the Garden Theatre. I will be speaking on the Demonstration Stage Sunday at 2 pm. To learn more about my talk, Captivating Containers, go here. For the full schedule of topics and presenters go here.

HERE'S THE FULL SKINNY (chock full of useful links) FROM THE HPSO SITE:

New Look - New Location - New Features - New Hours - Greatly Expanded - All Under One Roof!
Featuring over 80 plant vendors; botanical displays; Gardening Demonstrations in the new HPSO Garden Theater; indoor space for 38 Garden Artists; garden books for sale, at 25% discount for members; informational exhibits by Community Partner Organizations.

Check out the room map

More plant sale information

Vegetable Garden Update: Houston, we have lift off

After our big push two Sundays ago, we took a break so this was my first trip back to the plot in two weeks. What a thrill to see the first of our seedlings emerge! Radishes, spinach, peas, and arugula that were sown on the 16th are beginning to emerge, no sign of the carrots yet ...

The broccoli starts and onion sets are settling in and starting to grow. Potatoes and shallots were planted on the 16th also, but won't be showing themselves for a while yet.

Today's activity -- a power planting session. We were short on time and only had a little over an hour to spend but wanted to make sure that we kept on track with successive sowings. We planted a second sowing of peas, arugula, radishes and spinach and transplanted another round of broccoli starts. We also transplanted some cauliflower and kale seedlings. We made our first sowing of scallions and baby bok choy. I'm probably forgetting something, but you get the gist.

Even with ten raised beds, feels like the garden is filling up fast!

Snow?! In late March?! In Portland!?

We got a skiff of snow this morning -- a very rare occurence this late in March, at least at my elevation, which is about 200 feet. Forecast says we could get more this weekend.

Bloomtown client project featured on Sunset blog - Fresh Dirt

What fun! I have a client garden featured at Sunset's blog, Fresh Dirt, today.

I've posted a few photos of this garden below. More photos of this garden can be found in this photo album along with shots of other client gardens. Also watch for a write up on this garden in an upcoming issue of Sunset Magazine.

Photo in today's Homes & Gardens Northwest

If you get your hands on a copy of today's Homes & Gardens of the Northwest put out by the Oregonian, check out the full page photo on the inside of the back page. You'll find a spring scene from my garden taken a couple of years ago. Deep burgundy playing against poppy chartreuse and cool blues ... spring, spring, spring!

Bloomtown Nursery Update

While the "official" opening day for the nursery will be next Saturday, March 29th, we're working at the nursery quite a bit getting it ready and we'll be on-site this Saturday the 22nd and in and out quite a bit next week as well. If you find yourself in our neck of the woods, look for our signboard on NE Fremont at the corner of NE 51st Avenue. If the signboard is out, we're there.

For more information, including a map & directions go here.

We've brought in lots of great new plants this week! See you soon.

Vegetable Garden Update: Ready for Planting

OMG - what a busy day we had. We went from a pile-o-soil at the street in the morning to getting our first plantings in by day's end.

For now, I'll let the pictures speak. I'll write more later to give a fuller update on our project.

Vegetable Garden Update: Construction Begins

A "photo documentary" of our most recent work party.

First of all, I wanted to make sure that we captured a true "before" shot, warts and all, of where our garden will be.

After last week's visit to the lumber yard we were all set & ready to get busy right away. Henry Ford's got nothing on us; we set up a veritable assembly line and built ten boxes in 3 hours. (Special thanks to today's guest helper!)

Laurie clearing the decks - brambles beware.

A long day behind us; good progress has been made, but enough for one day.

Next week we'll finish setting and leveling the boxes into their final positions. Soil is scheduled for delivery this week. I hope that we'll have at least of couple of the beds ready for planting by the end of our next work party so that we can get our early plantings in -- peas, potatoes, and broccoli for starters.

Onward, upward, hey-ho! Stay tuned.

Photo tour of Bloomtown's garden today

I thought I would share some shots taken today in the garden. Sorry, but I don't have a lot of time to say more; the photos will have to stand on their own.

Enjoy ...

Anemone nemorosa - how blue can you get?

Narcissus 'Rip Van Winkel'

Euphorbia 'Tasmanian Tiger'

Magnolia stellata emerging flower

Crocus bloom in the recline of decline

Phlomis seed head -- a hanger-on from last fall.

HELP WANTED: Bloomtown Nursery

Do you love plants, gardens, and garden-making? Do you get a kick out of helping people make good plant choices for their gardens?

Bloomtown Nursery is looking for a hort-head to join our team.

We’re located in NE Portland at 3528 NE 50th Avenue, on the same property as Bamboo Craftsman Nursery. Darcy Daniels, a well-known garden designer and the principal of Bloomtown, Inc., started this nursery to complement her busy garden design practice. The nursery prides itself on providing a select group of plants – focusing the collection on plants that Darcy would be willing to use in her own client gardens.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Knowledgeable and enthusiastic sales assistance for our retail nursery customers
• Keeping nursery stock in top condition & displayed to best advantage
• Being a positive and flexible member of our small but mighty team

This is a seasonal position, ¾ to full time, offering a competitive rate of pay. Saturdays and occasional Sundays will be required. Work is outdoors and can be somewhat physical.

Please send a brief email to Darcy detailing your experience and why you think you’re the right person to join our team.

To learn more about Bloomtown, poke around here at www.bloomtown.typepad.com

Vegetable Garden Update: an excursion for building materials

Well, first of all, a few changes since the last update ... alas, isn't that the case with all projects?

We'd planned on building in the front yard, but have had to move to the back yard. And not for reasons you might guess ... there wasn't any objection to a front yard garden per se, as Angela was asking about in her comment on my previous post. There's quite a bit of front yard gardening happening around here, veggie and otherwise. (More on that interesting topic in a different post.) No, the reason was that some repairs to the house's water line will need to be made this summer and our garden would have been disrupted as a result.

The back yard that we'll be using is equally sunny and as large, so we're still going to end up with plenty of room for ten 4' x 8' raised beds.

Today's milestone - we traipsed out to the lumber yard and got our materials for next weekend's building party. We got twenty 2" x 8" x 8' and twenty 2" x 8" x 4' of green doug fir for the side panels, and six 4" x 4" x 12' posts that will be cut down to size for our stabilizing corners and "posts." We're using fir because it will be much, much more affordable to build with and although it won't last as long as other materials might, such as cedar, it will last long enough for our purposes. Certainly several years, probably more. It all fit perfectly well in the back of my Toyota Tacoma. The hardest part was lugging it all into the back yard, where it waits now for our next step. Stay tuned.

Photo: That's Laurie with today's haul. Sorry for the crummy photo ... I left my real camera at home and had to use the camera on my phone!