Easter Egg Tree

My mother has a table top Easter egg tree to display her collection of hanging eggs. I was inspired to maybe start a collection myself and during the 5th week of Lent I decided to look into purchasing a little tree. But then I found this article about Ostereierbaum, outdoor German Easter egg trees. I decided that our young cascara tree would be a good place to start. Another part of my inspiration was the little tin eggs that were offered in the Emma Bridgewater Easter line, so cute!

When I saw the pictures of live trees  covered with eggs I figured it was a good way to use up the bag of plastic eggs I have in the attic. I prefer to do egg hunts with real, hardboiled, decorated eggs and yet I have accumulated all these eggs from church egg hunts and it was the preference of my cousin for Easter Sunday. Too difficult to have my kids sit out just because I think it is too much candy. This is a good way to fill out the tree with eggs since I can only afford a few of the EB eggs. :D

I decided to use ribbon that I threaded through the two holes in the plastic eggs with the center of the ribbon inside the egg so that there were the two loose ends outside which I could use to tie around the branch. This cascara is already leafing out so I knew I could not rely on slipping a loop of ribbon over the baby leaves without damaging them, or worst yet being able to remove them later once the leaves have really filled in.  I used the thinnest ribbon I could find in my ribbon stash and used a wooden skewer to finesse them through the little holes. I started with a small quality of eggs this year as a test run.

I woke up early and was able to get out an hang them while they were all still sleeping. Now I wait for them to wake up so we can bring in the new little chickies for our Easter surprise!

Quarantine Holy Thursday

I have mostly been staying at home in part because I was so sick at the beginning of the shelter in place order. Mr. W got into the habit of running the family errands and since I am more of a homebody than him we have just kept that arrangement. But as I have been doing my spring weeding and pruning I realized that the best solution around the pond is to dig out the dirt that is full on endless weeds, add new soil, and then top with bark dust. This meant that I needed to go to the plant nursery. Mr. W had thought about going on the weekend, but he said the line was crazy long that he did not want to attempt. It was strange; we had to wait in line in the parking lot on little paint marks and get a pep talk/lesson on how to shop. There were signs everywhere about the social distancing and everyone was wearing masks. So creepy, yet so necessary.

All I needed was the dirt and bark dust, so I could have gone straight to the register line, but I wanted to add some yellow-eyed grass for the spot in front of the pond. I have planted two clumps of it in the past, but when I was weeding I only found one had returned. I don't think my passionflower made it through the fall and winter either, but really did not want to spend time browsing during quarantine so I went straight to the native plant section, grabbed the very last yellow-eyed grass and returned to the check out line.

Look how nicely the camas is self seeding in the native hedgerow around the fig tree.
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My dinner plans were very simple this week and I had planned for grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, and dandelion salad. We didn't end up having any lettuce in the house though so instead Mr. W used the recipe for sautéed dandelions with onions. I think the trick is to chop it up nice and small, last year I had a hard time chewing the pieces because they were so stringy. Also I think he used a lot of butter, which makes everything delicious.
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We were so behind in our scheduled that we missed the live stream of Mass. Instead we washed each other's feet. The kids thought it was weird, and commented on not wanting to be each other's slaves, but we tried to direct the conversation toward humbling ourselves before each other and showing each other how much we love we share by this act. Little Miss really enjoyed doing it and asked to wash her dad's other foot. And the boys both enjoyed the feeling of the foot washing so each of them washed their own second foot. 
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Leaf Change in the Garden

It has been such a nice dry autumn that we are having such an amazing leaf change in the city. Normally so many dying leaves would have been lost from the trees from pelting rains. Instead, all over town, we are seeing beautiful and amazing colored trees: bright reds, intense almost neon yellows. It is very enjoyable. And even here in our garden we are finally getting an indication of future leaf changes. When we planted the native hedgerow a few years ago we planted three vine maple and one western crabapple. Today I noticed that one of the vine maple is showing some vibrant red; how exciting when all three mature enough to get plenty of sunshine to yield all that crimson for us!


I modified the landscaping plan that we had because the designer had specified a few trees too close to the house for my preference(as a result of what happened when we did the exterior restoration had scaffolding erected.) Also she specified some non-native trees which, while undeniably pretty, were not what what I had in mind for naturescaping. Near our newly designed terrace I decided a cascara tree would be a better choice than the proposed ornamental. Cascara have pretty grey bark with a lobed leaf and yield a berry that birds can eat. Eventually this tree should provide much needed shade for the terrace so I won't have to manuever umbrellas around. Once we went on an outing to Portland Nursery and I was telling Mr. W about the cascara's qualities and he suggested we buy one then and there. I was pleasantly surprised because I was talking future, but he was feeling quite generous. We've had it for maybe 3 years now and it is thriving, thankfully, because I have definitely not been babying it like one should. Today I noticed that it also is beginning change color with reddish yellow leaves.

And I'll toss in this shot of my beauty bush and chrysanthemum in the beds beneath the cascara. It was even prettier when the two Michaelmas daisies were in bloom. My poor lopsided beauty bush though, we really need to remove that out of control laurel hedge. That is the last step I need to qualify for platinum certification for the Backyard Bird Habitat. One day...

Invasion of the Flickers

After we bought this house we realized we had a bird problem. There were two holes in the front of the tower, which while nearly symmetrically placed were for neither drainage nor ventilation. They were bird holes. Passers by would eagerly alert us to the blah blah blah birds that they saw nesting in our house. It frankly went over my head, all I heard was the voice of the teacher from Peanuts. WE could see the birds flying in and out of the holes. And near the end of the summer I would find birds flying around inside the attic, even though all the windows have screens.  SO they were managing to nest in our wall cavities and then make their way up to the attic since the house is balloon framed.

I ended up hiring one of the carpenters from the company where I used to work to come patch and fill the holes to keep the birds out. They stuffed them with steel wool and covered it with spray foam. I hoped our problem was over. There were a total of 4 holes filled.
Nope. This spring nesting season we were plagued with these long beaked birds pecking into the siding of the tower as well as in the dentil mould above the west facing balcony. I was constantly throwing up the window sash shouting at the birds like some crabby old man. Which wasn't an easy task considering I am pregnant and the access to the balcony is through a window. Unfortunately Mr. W has been excpetionally busy atr work so I had to fight this battle more or less on my own.

I referenced a bird watchers identification book which I had purchased last spring when Our Little Helper and I became interested in watching birds. I determined that our long beaker nuisance was the Northern Flicker, which likes to make its nest in dead wood. Well, apparently southwest facing, 120 year old siding is the perfect amount of dead for them. Since we have 6 mature birch trees in the parking strip one each sides of the house I was hoping that by providing alternate nesting in the form of bird houses would encourage them to nest elsewhere. Mr. W also began to research the possibility of adding a fake owl on the roof to distract them.

At the local backyard bird shop I purchased 2 large flicker houses. They come with a bag of saw dust which they apparently like to toss around when nesting. We should clean out the boxes at the end of the nesting season and either leave them mounted or remove them until the following nesting season. She said it is possible that other creatures might use the boxes as a home in the interim. The salesperson recommend that we also finish it with  linseed oil to make the last longer.  Since fake owls don't tend to be very effective for deterring flickers, they instead recommended metallic scare tape. I'm supposed to suspend this out the windows so that it blows in the wind it will startle birds away. I don't love this idea, but I am growing weary of shouting at flickers all day so I'm willing to give it a try.

Here are the large flicker bird houses, made locally of milled cedar.

And since they weren't cheap I applied one coat of linseed oil.

Now I need Mr. W to mount them 10-20 feet above ground in the trees.  I suspended the scare tape from the attic windows so that the tape covers the area where the flickers were pecking holes. Not my idea look for a Queen Anne, it would be very appropriate if were were along the gay pride parade route. Fingers crossed this works!

Chopping down trees

As a housewarming gift my mom offered to have my Uncle M and her gardener come out and prune all our trees and shrubs and clean up around the pond before our Open House.  She loves gardening but has grown weary of her own yard.  I think she would have made a good landscape designer because she seems to enjoy the laying out and planning of the garden more than the day to day maintenance.  Although, maybe everyone enjoys that?  Is weed pulling therapeutic to anyone?
In any case, they all arrived Monday morning and began pruning back the rhodys, star magnolia, dogwood, and lilac. On the west elevation of the house the view of the original entry was obstructed by 3 trees that were planted in front of the stairs. 
The northern most tree was a cherry tree that was obviously rotted at the trunk, although it was still bearing fruit. The southern most tree was a fig tree that I was looking forward to harvesting and maybe making a fig paste to use for cheese tastings and such. Plus it didn't really interrupt the view of the porch in my opinion.  The middle tree was an ornamental apple tree which they told me had been well pruned and maintained, unfortunately the original placement was poor.  It was too crowded between the other two trees and many of it's leaves were covered with black spots.
Initially I thought I would want to eventually take out the middle apple tree and that we'd take out the cherry when it was on the verge of collapse.  I liked the idea of harvesting our own cherries, but so far they tasted very sour to me. I wasn't sure if they still weren't ripe yet or not.  My uncle said they were actually considered pie cherries because of their tartness. I wasn't expecting to remove any of them during this endeavor. But they talked me into doing it now since my mom was paying them to work.  Mr. W and I hadn't talked about removing any trees though and I wasn't entirely sure of his opinion.  Unfortunately he had meetings all day with clients in from Japan so we could only text about it.  He was fine with having them removed, but was adamant about saving all the wood to use for barbequing.
Once the cherry tree had been cut down it was suddenly much easier to pick the cherries! 
They are such pretty little things. My Little Helper and I were able to pick two bowlfuls! We worked together as a good team.
 
 Eventually I grew weary of picking and needed to get back to laundry day. Now I need to make some pies.
It makes such a big difference with those two trees removed!  Now I have the view of the house I want.  I've been wanting to take a new family photo on the front steps to use for change of address cards, but hadn't gotten around to it because I was feeling discouraged about how to set up the camera to avoid the trees. And you can see how rotted out the cherry tree was, it's amazing that it was still standing!

The pond was completely overgrown. 

Those big leafy things are called dinosaur something.  I walked by someones yard recently and saw how tall they grow and thought, "I don't want those in my yard!" Plus there is a holly tree that drops a thousand spiky leaves and berries. They ended up transplanting a few of the sword ferns into other beds and removed a clump of euphorbia too.   My mom also decided to have her pond guy come out and fix the pond.  He met with us Monday to do an estimate and will come back on Sunday to do the work before the party. Nice! Fortunately all the pump parts are in good shape and sized appropriately.  I was not planning on fixing this pond anytime soon, so this is an especially nice gift.  She's not really excited about her own yard and pond anymore, I think she considers my yard and pond her new projects!  I don't mind at all! She's so excited about it that she brought over the Japanese lantern I bought for her pond.  I think it looks great in its new spot.  Since her pond was near the front of her house she never put a candle inside it and feels like we'll get more functional use out of it since our pond is off our back deck.

They planted a few plants that I got at Bosky Dell Native Plant Nursery.  I think they fill out the lilac bed nicely.  I've started to do some reading on Victorian gardens and will have to do a lot of thinking to figure out how best to incorporate natives into historical looking borders and beds.

Mason bee bungalow

Earlier this week when I had to be out of the house for the inspection, I went to the Backyard Bird Shop to fulfill the final requirement of my Backyard Bird Habitat certification: habitat for another native species. The coordinator had recommended I add mason bees. They are not combative and help with pollination. They don't require a hive in the traditional sense. She said I could go to the BYBS and buy a house for them and a box of bees. It seemed easy enough.
I selected a small bungalow and a box of 10 bees, 5 male, 5 female. They are hibernating cocoons so I needed to place them in the refrigerator once home. The shop keeper warned me against forgetting them in my purse lest I here a buzzing sound emanating from it. Ha! Can you imagine?!
Then I needed to pick a spot that was protected, received early morning sunshine. I considered the front yard where there are more flowers, this is also the areas where the coordinator recommended I place it. However the bungalow was too big to fit next to the stair railing where she suggested. I decided the back yard made more sense since that is the area with all the natives. Plus I could mount it high up on the fence so it would be sure to not interfere with the new owners and their guests who may want to hang out on the deck. I'd been monitoring how the sun hits the fence posts for a few days to select the right spot.
I got out my drill and bits for possibly the last home project in the Laburnum Bungalow. ::sniff:: My Little Helper was very excited to hand up each tool to me while I was at the top of the ladder. He really felt it out to be painted first and suggested a black and yellow paint scheme. What a creative boy!
First I mounted the Bee Bungalow to the top of the post.
The next step was attaching the cardboard box with the hibernating bees underneath.
 I was told to afix it temporarily with a rubberband and open one end. The bees will come out of hibernation and exit the box and look for a new home. Hopefully they'll choose the bungalow. The timing works out really well, from everything I've read it seems they come out of hibernation in mid March and April.

You can't really see the bee cocoons in there, but they looked a lot like potato bugs. 
I've finally got some new growth on one of the Mock oranges I planted in the fall.  I'm a little sad that I wouldn't get to see how well these ill in this year (or the future for that matter.)  
It was such a nice sunny day that the boys and I played outside for awhile.   It's not often I'm warm enough for snacks on the porch in early March!  
My Little Helper alternates between not wanting his picture taken and wanting me to take lots of pictures of him. Today was one of the latter!  "Take another picture of me!"

Baby Boy doesn't mind me taking photos, but he's so interested in the camera that I don't get many good shots before he's suddenly in my face and trying to grab it out of my hands.

Backyard Bird Habitat Certified!

At some point in December, between birthday parties, holiday functions, and getting ready for out of town guests, I received my Silver Backyard Bird Habitat certification! I had my uncle finish up the last of the planting of the native shrubs I needed to get the secondary layer of the canopy. I purchased those through the fall native plant sale. She calculated all my native planting square footage vs the lot size and I am meet their criteria. The only thing I have outstanding is to have habitat for another species of native animal, so the coordinator recommended I get a mason bee hive. They sell those, bees included, at the Backyard Bird Shop, so I'll head out there one day when I need to get the children out of the house for a showing.
Here I am the day I received my certification and my shiny new sign!With the new barkdust freshly spread, here are some more photos of the backyard and the shed. I've worked so hard back here, I'm a little sad to leave it now!Oregon Grape, our state flower, in the foreground and sword, deer, and lady fern in the bed. In the far corner is a newly planted Mock Orange, one of the secondary canopy plants and another salal.A view of our Douglas fir, our state tree, and the neighbor's laurel, the only remaining laurel in the yard. It sure was private back here when all three sides were hedged in laurel, but it was sucking nutrients from the ground and took up too much space for such a modest sized lot. A sad 'purple splendor' rhododendron in the foreground with another Oregon Grape. Our dueling compost bins are tucked behind the shed so they aren't visible from the deck.Between the Oregon Grape and rhody is a new salal plant that is a spreading ground cover, but will be more like a low shrub. Beneath the deck I have some more sword fern and in the spring native bleeding heart will bloom.
On the far left is an evergreen huckleberry and on the far right is a very happy and established snowberry.Along the rear property line are 3 red flowering currant which will grow into a bit of a thicket to provide privacy. It is supposed to be a very ornamental bloomer. I'm a bit sad I may never see it! When I got them they were just little nubby twigs.A close up view of the finished shed (although I still have to install the door hardware.) I ordered the window box last summer after Mr. W gave me the impression we would never be able to afford the Mt. Tabor house and I resolved to make the backyard a haven for us to enjoy this coming summer. I filled it with some cheery spring pansies since we are on the market.
This is also my test run of exterior paint colors for the house. If we were staying, I didn't think we could go another year without painting. The trim is Benj Moore. #2153-60 Rich Cream and the accent color is #2069-10 Deep Mulberry. I rushed last week to put the last bit of paint around the trim on the shed door before we went on the market.
I had even bought a strand of solar lights to string along the gable and a wind chime. Now I'll have to take those with us and find a spot for them in our new home.

Our backyard (the before)

We have a little lot in the city, just 33 1/3'w x 100'd with no off street parking. Our bungalow is set further back from the street than the two foursquares which flank us. This allows for a nice size front yard with western exposure. This also results in a tiny postage stamp backyard. When Mr. W bought the house one of the things that sold him on it was the party deck in the backyard. It's a great size, but it also makes the yard seem even smaller. Compounding the situation was the overgrown laurel hedges on all three sides. In addition to the 50+ year old Doug fir and two maples the backyard was completely shaded.
I decided to take advantage of the situation by creating a shade garden that worked with the principles of naturescaping. I did a lot of my shopping at Bosky Dell nursery. I started by adding a few more sword ferns and introducing oxalis, which I love seeing on a forest floor and they bloom with little white flowers. On day I came home from work and discovered the property owners to the north tore out all the laurel on their lot. I although surprised, I was happy to see it gone. I was then able to add a snowberry, Oregon Grape (our state flower), huckleberry, and a purple rhododendron from Greer Gardens in Eugene. The previous homeowners had put in a sandbox which I removed since it really was just a giant litter box at that point. We went in on a picture frame fence with the neighbors, it's higher than it should be, but they wanted to accommodate the height of our deck to allow privacy for their tenants.
Several months ago we had a representative from the Backyard Habitat Program present to us out a neighborhood association meeting. Since I was already working toward a native garden I thought it would be a natural next step. It also helped that Mr. W has finally consented to me having the laurel hedge on our property removed. He isn't too keen on the idea, but either he trusts my judgment or he just got worn down. Over the years we have had arborists come out to give us estimates on the work, but we never seem to be able to fit it into the budget. One of my uncles is looking for work and already has all the equipment needed since he has a yard work business. I met with him this week and he is going to start work tomorrow. I am so, so excited!! It will be really helpful to me to get this project wrapped up before I get to large. I anticipate spending lots of time in the backyard this summer letting the boy run around while I sit in the shade trying to be cool and comfortable. My problem is that I usually can't relax in the back yard because all I see are unfinished projects.
Here is a look at our starting point: