Far Reaches Farm

We should have a Earthday Party but with our current administration's woeful, dismal and gawdawful environmental record perhaps a wake would be more in order.  We all need to be aware and educate ourselves and make better choices when possible.  Even if they aren't as much fun and cost a little more.  We try to walk the talk here at the Farm as much as possible.

We have signed up with Puget Power for our home and nursery to be 100% Green Energy.  Our Tractor is biodiesel.  We cooperatively co-own with some friends our nursery truck which runs on biodiesel and synthetic oil.  We encourage customers to bring our containers and flats back so we can reuse them as well as plant tags.  Whenever possible we try to patronize local suppliers rather than suppliers from far away to minimize trucking.  Our potting soil has no peat moss in it so we are not party to the strip-mining of a non-renewable resource in fragile northern wetlands.  We use no non-organic insecticides, fungicides or herbicides on our nursery plants or in our soil mix.  Our hands are in the dirt all the time and we want that potting soil to be friendly.  You would be shocked to know how much pesticides are part and parcel of typical ornamental plant production.  Our greenhouses are home to tree frogs, newts and birds and we like it that way.  We are potting up self-sown seedlings right now from our display beds which is a benefit of not using pre-emergent herbicides.  We also don't have to worry about toxic runoff from the irrigation which is a concern in nursery operations.  Our greenhouses are all second-hand which fits with our re-use and recycle theme.  We had planned to start work on our vacant display border on the other side of the driveway but that has to wait until the Kildeer eggs hatch as there is a nest smack in the middle of it.  Every year they nest here and usually in a most trying spot.  The topper was in a seed flat covered in granite grit in an area we hand watered.  Every day with the fake broken wing thing!  But the little chicks could hardly be cuter.  We are all on Kildeer watch so when we hear the alarm calls we rush out and scare away the crows.  It is more difficult to protect the Redwing Blackbird chicks out in our Reed Canary Grass wetland.  The heavy snow this winter flattened a lot of the grass so there is less cover than usual and it makes us crazy seeing the crows swoop in to pluck chicks.  Something needs to be eating crows.  The weasel family is doing well in the barn.  Apparently there are no more rodents left in there as we are seeing the parents bringing critters into the barn.  As long as Kildeer isn't on the menu we will all be happy. 

We are trying to do the right thing here as sustainably and as low impact as possible.  It is not always the easiest or the quickest or the most productive or the most profitable in the short term business sense but we think it is all of those things in the long-term let's respect this planet sense.  We go to bed feeling guilty about nothing we have done at work and each day we do good things.  We're growing plants.   Everyone is planting a billion trees to save the planet but a few million cool perennials can't hurt.

Our Nursery Overseer & Greeter position has gotten to be fairly overwhelming for Canela so yesterday we added a new staff member, Calliandra or Callie for short as Co-Overseer & Greeter.  Our friends in Baja who rescued Canela sent us an email with photos of this most gorgeous puppy that friends of theirs rescued in Baja who looks like she could be a sister to Canela and we hesitated not at all in replying Yes! We'll take her!  She was found abandoned under a tree and was flown back to Vancouver BC where she went through all the critical vet treatments and got certified to come into the States so yesterday we drove up and picked her up.  First though we had to go through our favorite garden which is the UBC Botanical Garden.  Magnificent plants of Rhododendron hodgsonii in peak bloom which we had seen out of flower in Arunachal Pradesh in the Fall of 2004.  We always feel like we are visiting old friends when we see plants in gardens that we have been privileged to see in the wild.  We were so relieved to see minimal damage to the gardens from this winter's storms.

Basically the new puppy Calliandra (named for an endemic plant of the Cape Region of Baja commonly known as Fairy Duster) is preventing us from getting really prepared for our first open weekend.  She is way too cute and Canela has taken a shine to her so watching the two of them has taken precedence over pulling more plants for the weekend.  Oh sure we could have pulled a couple more of the Flintoff double Trillium grandiflorum or we might have divided the gold leafed Polygonatum x hybridum but they are only puppies for such a short time!  Can you tell we have no children?  I have many new plant labels to write yet tonight so I had best hurry before I lose my spot in bed and have to nest in one of the greenhouses.

It has taken a couple of weeks to recover from the Flower Show binge we have been on.  The lethargy and mental confusion are improving and the need for dark chocolate, coffee and Zinfandel is lessening.  Which is all I really want is just a lessening.  We lectured last night to the Woodway Arboretum Unit giving a slide program on our plant hunting trip to Sichuan last spring and got jazzed all over again seeing the Meconopsis and Primula and Rhododendrons and Cypripediums and Pedicularis and Corydalis and Arisaemas and on and on.  One of the Meconopsis Sue and I found there - a sweet reddish flower just 5 to 6 inches high - is thought to be a new species and that is just about as good as it gets.  What would be better would be to go back there in the fall and collect seed to introduce it to cultivation.  Any expedition sponsors out there?  It was not that far from the black-foliaged Arisaema ciliatum v. liubaense which is just screaming to be introduced and that is only a half day's drive from that perfect variegated sport on that Daphne and as long as we are on the road it is only 3 days away from that Corydalis with the red-centered foliage which is only a few days away from the Alliums growing on that partially shaded bank which had several individuals with deep red foliage... so many plants!    We have got some pretty cool ones here at the nursery though and most would appreciate repotting so out to the bench while there is still some daylight.

Wheeee!  Weeks of crazy hours and super-human efforts are finally culminating in the Blessed Seattle and Portland Flower Shows.  I'm so tired I'm seeing divinity everywhere.  It must be that vision quest thing that so ensnared my Native American ancestors.  "Work hard not smart" is the family credo and to be the pride of the family is a  dubious distinction.  Saint Stephanie who has volunteered in stalwart fashion during the Show prep said "I am never going to complain about the price of plants again!  I had no idea!"  Nursery work is all about the love of the process as well as the product.  The successful nursery people are business people first and nursery people second.  I was told once that my fatal flaw was that I was in love with my product.  Well isn't that why I got into it?

A couple of asides.  The potential rat/mouse problem in the barn is over as the weasel family has moved back in getting ready to raise the next brood of weaslings?  I was cursing the deer the other day for getting through the open gate and mowing down the foliage of Crocus sativus when I realized it was the nocturnal foragings of the 100 or so mallards in our wettest-ever wetlands adjoining our border garden.  I love ducks.  And I was made aware of the need for a door sweep in our office when a salamander crawled under the door to see what plant labels we were printing at 11:00 at night.

Good things in our lives:

Xerox Phaser 8550 Color Laser Printer from Add Clarity in Portland Oregon.

Jeremy Block, Sales Rep Extraodinaire for NATO pot label printers with OBC and LODA Enterprises.

Chuck at Specialty Soils who has really dialed in our potting mix. 

As we now enter the waning hours of another day which merges seamlessly into the next day and on and on I wonder how we are so much more advanced than our neighbor countries whomwe share this earth with and conclude that we lag far behind inany values that have meaning.  When we were plant-hunting in Nagaland near the border of Burma and Tibet, we stayed in remote villages and observed social interaction and were frankly humbled.  .  No electricity and little contact with the outside world made these folks develop a sense of community and interdependance which would be the envy of any cutting edge social programs in this country.  We were struck by this at at a remote wayside in the middle of a jungle nowhere late at night where we had stopped for food and heard the unfamiliar sound of singing and walked out to the road edge and saw village girls walking down the road in the dark hand in hand singing songs.   Happy as clams.   Not needing the latest cellphone or Gamebox to provide an artificial sense of self worth.  This was real humanity at it's finest and what I imagine our country was like a century ago.  I think we all need to start to embrace community and neighborliness as that is where civilization is defined and that is what we are all going to need to rely on when the global warming hits the fan.  I guess I just bemoan the loss of decency and respect that seems so rampant.  I swear I don't sound like my parents.  I feel good about what we do for work and sustaining the soul.  We do it as right as possible - minimal and organic pesticides, no peat moss, recycle pots and flats, grow it mostly ourselves and find ourselves sacrificing a whole section of the nursery each spring because of Kildeer nests.  Another year gone by without creating a Kildeer sanctuary in the field out of decomposed granite.  Most people would think our priorities skewed but we think they are perfectl aligned.   Nothing we do all year compares to the pride we  feel when the the mother Kildeer parades her chicks by the potting bench as they are leaving the property.  Work came to a screeching halt yesterday as Sue brought this cool Newt into the office which she found in the propagation house.  It's great not to be on a pesticide spray program!

Amazing how a few seeds sprouting can restore your faith in humanity and I have to admit that the election results didn't hurt.  Granted I have little faith in the Democrats being able to offer a decisive and cohesive message and effect real change but at least I will have someone new to bitch about.  The Joy of Seeds remains a constant in my life.  It's the whole miracle of birth thing I guess and electing to not have children means these seeds sprouting are about the nearest I'm going to get to a child outside of Canela and Jeanne's chickens.  In the midst of pre-storm winterizing  frenzy today, I checked out the seed pots we leave outside and by gosh there were fat cotyledons of an Oxytropis from the Tibetan Plateau pushing up.  Snow was just starting to swirl and here was brave new life heedless of the dire predictions of our sensationalist weather reports on TV.  It just makes a person feel good.  Lots of cooing noises as the little pot was tucked into the greenhouse for the next few days.  It was yet further reinforcement of the therapeutic value of gardening.  Actually looking forward to some cold weather - it helps to get caught up on computer work.

Doomed.  This is the only conclusion I can reach after enduring the media frenzy and retail madness over so-called Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  We will never be open on Black Friday.  It is a day aptly named not for businesses finally turning a profit but for the embarassment of how empty so many of our lives have become that it is important to stand in line outside of evil Wal-Mart in the dark hours of morning.  I can't imagine the motivation except that so many lack purpose and rely on external events to provide stimulation.  We have projects and interests and above all, a life that doesn't require acquisition of consumables to make it interesting.  (Plants are exempt of course)  There should be retail gulags established and anyone standing in line in front of a store waiting for it to open should be swept up and incarcerated and not be allowed to leave until they learn to think for themselves.  We've become anesthetized into a bovine complacency by a combination of government, corporations and the media until we have lost our edge and drive.  We have become dumbed down and pliable.   I often wonder how some of our citizens justify their consumption of resources - what do they contribute to the good of society?  I like to think we are active participants and positively add to our community and every so often are fortunate enough to contribute to the sum of human knowledge.  A friend of ours summarizes her frustration over this state of affairs quite succinctly by saying "We need a good Plague."  I'm not sure I want to sign up for that but I sympathize.  One thing I know for sure is that all our children should be learning Mandarin as our ship has sailed.  The older I get the more curmudgeonly I become.  Boy I feel good - there's nothing like a good rant!

It has been a while since my last entry.  It is surprising how being an advocate for a loved one's health care can be so time consuming.  I realize that it is not surprising to anyone in that position but I have to admit that in dealing with situations last spring and early summer which ended with my Dad's passing, I find myself still somewhat amazed at the bureaucracy and odd blend of competence and negligence which attends my Mom's stroke rehabilitation.  I am baffled that we can contemplate a ridiculous and heinously expensive fence along our southern borders and not be able to provide adequate care for our citizens.  Our money is being ill-spent and please remember that when you vote.

We have also been engaged in a fairly heroic race against the Fall rains.  We must be living right to have had such a dry October as we are moving our outdoor containers out into the field behind the greenhouses.  We have been grading and installing irrigation and just today had the first loads of our 300 yds of gravel delivered.  Ouch.  We have been in a bit of a panic about gravel trucks getting mired in the field and leaving big ruts in our new nursery but it looks like we will just beat the rain.  I may soon resemble the former carefree and fun fellow that Sue once knew.  We are pretty excited about having a very functional nursery finally.  Thanks for your patience.  Sue and I have been pleasantly surprised to know that we can still work so darned hard!

Yesterday found us hiking to the top of Mt Townsend where we could best take advantage of this incredible late season sunny weather.  The flowers were minimal but were well remembered from earlier hikes this summer.  Sue, the proud Vermonter, who readily admits to snobbery in maple syrup, chocolate, men (I like to tell myself) and especially fall color, grudgingly admitted that the Huckleberries were stellar in their maroon intensity.  The views were phenomenal with Port Angeles, Sequim, Port Townsend and seemingly all of Puget Sound laid out at our feet.  Hazy views of Victoria and Seattle with great punctuations of Mt Rainier, Mt Baker and the Cascades.  Turn around and the interior of the Olympics beckons with a persuasive intensity that is hard to ignore.  We had the summit to ourselves and had a grand lunch on rocks threaded with Campanula piperi in the crevices.  I looked over at Sue and Canela and saw they were feeling the same appreciation for life as I was experiencing.  It was a good day.

I've been grappling with the near loss of my mom a couple weeks ago due to a stroke and caught up in the labyrinthine world of medicare-rehab-hospitals etc.  It has left me feeling a bit fragmented to say the least.  Normal procedure here at the nursery with something in her condition would be to carve away the dead portion and let it callous over or just take a healthy bit and try to root it.  Or if it is replaceable then it is off to the compost heap.  None of these options seemed to quite fit so I have been floundering with a set of skills that suddenly seem a bit useless.  Fortunately things are improving thanks to people who may have black thumbs with plants but green thumbs with people.  And thanks also to that come-hell-or-high-water attitude of mom's which has at times been the bane of my existence but is carrying the day for her now as it is propelling her through rehab.  It is getting better.  I found myself today enjoying the group of Crinum powellii blooming their fool heads off in our border and thought that was a good sign.