June 2022 – Becoming A Gardener

The First Dahlias of the Season

There are dahlias blooming and it’s not even July yet! This seems remarkably early to me.

I Like To Plant Flowers

This is what I planted:

This is what it looks like now:

Searing Flower Stems

Sarah Raven recommends seating cut flower stems in boiling water for a few seconds to a minute to improve base life.

It sounds a little crazy to me – why would cooking the stems keep the flowers alive longer?? – but she swears by it, so I’m willing to give it a try.

Finding Pots for Plants

After work this week, I scrounged up some pots for the new starts I have.

I think the square footage available in the front yard is plenty, but I just have made the most optimal use of it this year. So plants in pots it is.

The First Raspberries of Summer

Happy Solstice! I love this time of year. It’s hard to believe that it’s been a full 6 months since the winter solstice and that the days are going to start getting shorter. That means fall is coming, but summer hasn’t even really started for us in the PNW!

It was so fitting that I found the first ripe raspberries of the summer last night.

It can officially be summer now.

More Plants!

I was in Multnomah Village yesterday and came across a community garden with a pile of plant starts out front.

At first I thought they were for sale, but the signs said “Feel free to take as many as you can grow. Whatever you grow: Use what you can. Donate the rest to our food pantry.” How nice!

Early Peony Blooms

The peonies are juuust starting to open up.

I picked one for a small vase.

Whitecrossed Seed Bug

One of my gardening resolutions this year was to pay attention to the bugs and other critters that I see in the garden. I’d been slacking on that goal until this guy caught my eye:

I found it crawling along a weed next to the raised beds in the back of the house. The distinctive red and black cross on the back wasn’t something I’d seen before.