We are simpatico on nearly every issue. Politics. No problem. Religion. Not an issue. Money. We jive. But weeds? Where I see invasive interlopers with flying seeds and unruly roots, Gary sees lush green. And when I clean squatters out from around my perennials, Gary cries “scorched earth!”

Our conversations go something like this:

Katlin: I can’t find my daylilies.

Gary: They’re there. Just wait until they bloom.

Katlin: The roses can’t breathe.

Gary: We shouldn’t grow roses.

Katlin: Vinca is taking over the yard.

Gary: Vinca? What vinca?

So imagine my chagrin when I opened the weekend Wall Street Journal to find a massive feature story “Why We Must Learn to Love Weeds” by Richard Mabey.

Darn that article on weeds!

The article invoked Ralph Waldo Emerson who said: “What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered.” That would be Gary’s point of view.

The WSJ piece also mentions my stand: “They (weeds) are plants that sabotage human plans. They rob crops of nourishment, ruin the exquisite visions of garden designers, break our codes of appropriate behavior, make unpleasant and impenetrable hiding places for urban ne’er-do-wells.”

That’s certainly what I found in a recent campaign against unwanted garden guests. They were blocking my plans (and plants), robbing my perennials of nutrients, messing up my garden design and hiding legions of disgusting snails .

At our first house, we found a simple solution. Gary took the backyard. I gardened in front. I can’t remember who tended the sideyard. It didn’t matter. It was a tiny, easy-care yard.

At our current home, that all changed. We have gone out of our way to create a very high-maintenance yard. And we share landscaping duties throughout the multiple garden beds.

So how do you cope with a split household on the subject of weeds? This may sound rather sneaky but it works for us. I suggest that Gary go do something that he loves like, for instance, sailing. Then I move in with trowel and create botanical dig sites throughout the yard, unearthing my beloved plants. Here are a few before and after photos:

A few of the backyard beds:

Before - Jungle of plants

After - Plants with shape and personality

One of the new perennial beds:

Before - Jumble of plants

After - The daylilies are located!

Before - Hidden daylilies and fern

After - Happy plants!

From the frontyard:

Before - Rhodies with encroaching bergenias, end-of-season forget-me-nots and colonies of snails

After - Rhodies waiting for new bulbs and other companions

It’s not that I’m hiding my eradication efforts. The weeds end up in a very obvious pile in the driveway. Then Gary comes back from sailing a happy skipper and hauls them off while I enjoy a drink on the patio.

The great payoff...

Got any better ideas? I’m listening!

Spring events are in full force now in Southwest Washington. Here are a few ideas to get you out the door:

May 3 – The 39 Steps – Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts in Longview. This 2008 Tony award-winning play “The 39 Steps” is a madcap romp through one of Alfred Hitchcock’s finest films. Adapted for the stage, it became one of Broadway’s longest-running comedy thrillers. With a cast of 4, this show has more than 150 characters to keep you on the edge of your seat.

May 7 – The 28th Annual Ride Across Clark County (RACC) sponsored by the Vancouver Bicycle Club WARNING! This event may be sold out. Check the Web site for availability of this scenic and popular day-long ride. Four loops to choose from – 18, 34, 65 and 100 miles

May 7 – 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. National Train Day, Historic Train Depot, 210 Railroad Ave, Centralia, WA National Train Day commemorates the anniversary of the transcontinental railroad’s inception. Special displays and events will be in the Historic Railroad Depot in downtown Centralia.

May 14 – 8 p.m. Al Stewart Concert at the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center in Stevenson. Remember the Scottish singer-songwriter’s 1976 hit Year of the Cat? Skamania Performing Arts Foundation, 541-400-9792

May 14 and 15 – Vancouver Symphony Orchestra conducted by Salvador Brotons. Concert times are 3 pm on Saturday and 7 pm on Sunday. Last regular concert of the season. The program will feature Concerto for Horn by Brotons. Roman Festivals by Respighi and Audience Choice (voting now closed).

May 14, 12-4 pm – Cathlapotle Plankhouse, Carty Unit of the Ridgefield NWR, 28908 NW Main Ave., Ridgefield. Artist Judy Bridges, Cowlitz basket weaver, will demonstrate basket weaving techniques. Visitors will have the opportunity to view examples of her basketry and ask her questions about her craft.

May 15, 12-4 pm – Cathlapotle Plankhouse Carty Unit of the Ridgefield NWR, 28908 NW Main Ave, Ridgefield. Artists Greg Robinson, member of the Chinook Indian Nation, and Greg Archuleta, member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, will be in the Plankhouse doing carving and Chinookan lifeways demonstrations. Visitors will be able to see some of their beautiful artwork as well as talk to them about Chinookan art and culture.

May 18-19 – Nautical Renaissance The Port of Ilwaco welcomes back Grays Harbor Historical Seaport Tall Ships, The Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain. Self-guided tours are hosted by the crew wearing period costumes. ($3 requested donation). Adventure and Battle Sails are also available. Visit the Web site for prices and other details. From Ilwaco on May 19th guests can book passage to Astoria where the ships will offer tours until May 22, coinciding with Astoria’s opening celebration of its 200th birthday. Contact the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport Authority in Aberdeen (360) 532-8611 or (800) 200-5239 for details and schedules. Go to www.ladywashington.org to track the ships’ locations and purchase discounted price tickets. (Note: There will also be a sail in Ilwaco on May 3rd.)

May 21-22 – 31st Annual Herb and Garden Festival at Pomeroy Living History Farm Thousands of fresh herb and garden plants, many organic selections plus entertainment, farm café, vendors and the herb garden. Admission is free.

May 28-30 – Memorial Day Weekend Clark County Spring Wine Release Visit 11 Clark County wineries in one weekend! See the Web site for details and maps.

May 28-30 – Memorial Day Open House Weekend at Columbia Gorge Wineries Visit more than 30 wineries and tasting rooms on both sides of the river. Details on the event Web site.

Wow, what a May! This is just a small fraction of what is scheduled. See you out there in Southwest Washington!

Consider the cranberry. One of a very few fruits native to North America. Used by Native Americans for food, medicine and dyes. Named “crane berry” by Dutch and German settlers.

Ocean Spray, the cranberry grower co-op, which reports selling seven out of every 10 cranberries in the world, is out to educate us about the cranberry. Me, too.

Did you know these cranberry facts?
• U.S. cranberries are grown primarily in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Oregon and, of course, our beloved Washington. Of those states, Washington ranks fifth in harvest size. I asked. Enquiring minds want to know.

• 20 percent of cranberries are consumed during Thanksgiving. I thought it would be a higher percentage. Then again, you can only eat so many cranberries during one dinner.

• Sailors used cranberries to prevent scurvy. I am married to a sailor. He has never had scurvy to my knowledge. It must be the cranberries I feed him. Case closed.

• Cranberries bounce. It’s true! I tested this statement at home. This, by the way, was discovered by a New Jersey grower named John “Peg Leg” Webb, who dumped his crop down steps because he couldn’t carry the berries. The fresher berries bounced. The rotten berries didn’t. This led to the creation of “bounceboards” which help growers separate their berries. Who knew?!

I will admit that I have had misconceptions about cranberries over the years. As a child, I assumed that cranberries came only in cans. On Thanksgiving and Christmas, a can was opened and a jiggly, red, cylindrical mass with grooves appeared on the table.

Years later, when I moved to the Northwest, I thought, like many, that cranberries grew in large ponds. Wrong again! Cranberries grow on vines in marshy bogs and, in the fall, are “wet harvested” when the bogs are flooded with water and the berries float to the surface or “dry harvested” with lawnmower-like machines. Something else I didn’t know – cranberries are perennials.

So how do WE celebrate the cranberry?
In Southwest Washington, we have apple tree and cherry blossom festivals, crab and salmon celebrations. The bog-rich, Long Beach Peninsula knows how to honor the cranberry. The Cranberrian Fair was first celebrated more than 100 years ago.

This year, the October festivities started at Ilwaco’s Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum, which is well worth a visit with or without cranberries. There, 101 cranberry-peach pies were sliced by the ladies of the Willapacific Chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), who were raising money for college scholarships. A craft fair offered art plus cranberry products and baked goods. Cranberry bread, cookies, jam, sauces were featured. We immediately consumed pie and cookies, tasted cranberry chutney and purchased a five-pound bag of cranberries from a grower who was selling on the street.

Cranberries for Sale on the Streets of Ilwaco

The Cranberry Trolley

The Cranberry Trolley transported festival goers to the Pacific Coast Cranberry Research Foundation Museum and Gift Shop on Pioneer Road, where the bogs were flooded. Finally, I could witness a Northwest cranberry harvest – floating red berries, men in waders, machines that could remove and corral the berries. Of course it was pouring rain – a quintessential Northwest experience.

Harvesting the Berries

We learned about the history of the cranberry and industry in the museum. From cranberry wine to dental floss, the museum gift shop showed the diversity of these little berries. A salmon lunch was seasoned beautifully with cranberry barbeque sauce. Is there anything that you cannot create with cranberries?

One of the Cranberry Museum Exhibits

Cranberry Wine from K-W Cellars

Salmon with Cranberry Barbeque Sauce

The harvest may be over but the museum and gift shop are open daily (Apr 1 – Dec 15 and by appointment). And you can do a self-guided tour along the bogs. Don’t forget to buy some cranberries and start cooking. You’ll find recipes and a lot more on the Ocean Spray Web site. Why wait for Thanksgiving? I’m starting now with the Roasted Cranberry Quesadillas.

Floating Cranberries in a Bog

When I was a kid, chickens lived in barnyards. I was in awe of my grandmother’s fearlessness as she entered her long, white hen house and reached under each angry hen to snatch her egg. Those beaks looked mighty scary to me.

Looking back, I can’t imagine what it was like to have the 150 Rhode Island Reds and White Leghorns, which she tended to every day. That is a LOT of eggs! Combine that with multiple crowing roosters and we’re talking serious (and noisy) poultry.

Pondering the age-old question: Which came first?

The Wall Street Journal reported about the urban chicken trend on July 8, article here. Now chickens enjoy city backyards and Vancouver is no exception. We love our chickens!

Roosters are forbidden in our city limits (thank you, City of Vancouver!) but hens are doing quite well. In fact, the chickens will be queens for the day on July 17 at the Coop du Jour Tour, which will allow us to look into their castles. A fundraiser for the Hough Foundation, the self-guided tour will feature chicken coops of various designs in Vancouver’s Uptown Village neighborhoods. The tour will be held from Noon to 4 pm.

I had the opportunity to preview one of the coops in June. “Coop” is WAY too weak of a word. This was nothing like my grandmother’s utilitarian hen house. The Mowats have created a stylish home for their brood in the Hough Neighborhood and will be part of the tour.

Much More than a 'Coop'

A Condo for Hens

My neighbors Caitlyn and Jerrad are inspiring new chicken owners. They have creatively transformed their daughter’s play structure into a handy coop, while preserving the swings, upper deck and slide for play. They will explain their architectural wonder during the tour. Frank Lloyd Wright would be proud.

Play Structure or Chicken Coop? It's Both!

Buy your tickets now for the Coop du Jour. They are available at Arnada Naturals and Mint Tea in advance (Only $10 per family) or on the day of the event. More info about the tour is here.

Grandma Moses reputedly said that if she hadn’t been a painter, she would have raised chickens. She would have enjoyed the Coop du Jour.

Thirty years later disaster strikes. Imagine that your life’s work is washed away. In 1948, a flood destroyed most of Hulda’s collection. At age 83, she started over. Many people who had purchased her many varieties came back with plant starts. She re-planted her collection and continued her spring open houses until her death at age 96 in 1960.

Today, the fragrant collection and the 1889 Klager home are maintained by the Hulda Klager Lilac Society. You can see the results of Hulda’s work, tour the Klager farm house and purchase plants every spring from mid-April through Mother‘s Day during Lilac Days . During the rest of the year, the grounds are open from 10 am to 4 pm, seven days a week. Details here .

Here are a few photos of Hulda Klager’s floral legacy:

City of Gresham

Katherine Havemeyer

Chrystle

Lilac Sunday

Glory

Dahlias may be the national flower of Mexico, but they thrive here. The American Dahlia Society reports that “the mountains of Mexico and Guatemala are considered the home of origin for today’s dahlia ancestors.”  Clark County has numerous dahlia growers. These photos were taken at Dahlia Daze at the Wynneshire Farms near the Clark County Fairgrounds.

Back to William Allen White, he also said “I have never been bored an hour in my life. I get up every morning wondering what new strange glamourous thing is going to happen and it happens at fairly regular intervals.” We could use more people like him, and more dahlias, in our lives.

Welcome!

I love farms. With clear memories of summers and weekends on my grandparents Iowa farm, I was looking for some reminders of childhood this summer. They were there in form of gardens and animals, tractors and the smell of hay at the historic Pomeroy Farm. I fed the chickens and goats, talked to the snorting pigs (always my favorite farm animal) and made my very first cornhusk doll. Farm life in the 1920’s is on display. In 2010, it will be owned by members of the Pomeroy family for 100 years. 

“This house is full of memories,” Lil Freese told me as we stood in the diningroom of the original log home of her grandparents, E.C. and Adelaide Pomeroy who purchased the first 160 acres in 1910.  She graciously shares stories about 1920s log house at the farm, which over time expanded to 677 acres. Pomeroy family members started the living history program at the farm in 1988. Last year, 3500 school children visited the farm.

A spinner at work

On the porch, a costumed spinner turned wool into yarn while an “old time” band played. As I tried to churn cream into butter in the diningroom, I enjoyed the lesson but silently gave thanks for modern grocery stores. Upstairs, five bedrooms in the log house displayed the lifestyles of five different decades. Wandering through the farm, I toured the gardens, working blacksmith shop, historic barn and met the chickens, goats and pigs.

One of the residents at Pomeroy

A real oinker

Feeding the goats

October is a great time to visit. That is when Pumpkin Lane is in full swing including a mile long hayride past 70 “pumpkin people” and a stop at the Pumpkin Patch plus animals, children’s carnival games, entertainment and pumpkins available for purchase. Dates in 2009 are October 3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24 and 25. For the latest information including admission fees and directions visit www.pomeroyfarm.org or call 360.686.3537.

This is the the second year that we have bought a half-share of the Red Basket Farm, which is near Battle Ground. Every other weekend we receive a BIG basket of produce from Kate Rae’s CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm. Deliveries start in late spring with greens, peas and other early vegetables. With the coming of summer, our bounty diversifies and increases. Our last shipment weighed 42 pounds! There are many reasons to join a CSA. Here are 10 benefits we have enjoyed:

1. Pesticide-free, ultra-fresh vegetables. This almost goes without saying but we know that our CSA produce is grown in a safe, sustainable manner and that it is harvested right before we receive it.

2. Supporting and getting to know a farmer. Not only do we know where and how are vegetables are grown, we know WHO planted and harvested them. Kate has been known to say our names as she plants potatoes.  It’s nice to know that there is a potato with your name on it! And her potatoes are fabulous when roasted with Red Basket Farm beets, carrots and onions.

3. Sharing produce with our friends and neighbors. We can’t eat all the produce we receive. So we share. Cabbages go to our German neighbor across the street. Spicy peppers go to a friend who is from Mexico. Vegetables build strong friendships!

4. Learning new cooking skills. Orach, kale, shisho greens, Swiss chard – we are learning to cook and eat in new and interesting ways. We still haven’t figured out what to do with mustard greens but we will get there someday! (See the Clark College  Easy Vegetable Meals class listed below.)

5. Visiting the farm. It’s great fun to visit the 70-acre Red Basket Farm. It’s a beautiful site filled with beds of our vegetables, flowers, fruit trees and assorted animals. The surrounding countryside makes for a lovely Sunday drive and Rusty Grape Vineyard and tasting room is just down the road. 

6. The BEST eggs in the world. It pains us to buy eggs in the store after eating the fresh green and brown eggs with such beautiful orange yolks. Kate’s feathered girls know what they are doing!

7. Meeting other CSA members. Each year, Kate has a beginning and end of  year party. It’s great fun to meet the other members and spend time at the farm.

8. Surprise! You never know what you are going to get. This is similar but not the same as #4. It’s an adventure to pick up your veggies and not know what you are getting or, in some cases, what you have received, once you see it. It’s all about learning and being flexible.

9. Flowers. Many CSAs offer flower shares and deliver gorgeous bouquets.

10. Buying local. We buy so many things that are manufactured or grown thousands of miles away. Buying local, fresh produce is a gift to us, to the farmer and, hopefully, to the environment.

Note: On Thursday, September 24, 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., Clark College at the new CTC campus is offering an evening class “EasyVegetable Meals” with Betty Hinkle of News Seasons Market. Class members will create:  Mixed Vegetable Grill with Spicy Peanut Sauce; Goat Cheese and Red Pepper Relish Sandwiches; Stir-Fried Japanese Mushroom Noodles; Roasted Root Vegetables; Gazpacho; Cauliflower Bake and Sweet Potato and Nut Bake. Cost is $85. For more information, go to Easy Vegetable Meals.

Dahlias, glads, sunflowers, zinnias, all in the most brilliant colors imaginable, are at the Vancouver Farmers Market right now. How do you choose the perfect bouquet? Just when you think you have found a floral piece de resistance, so to speak, a bouquet maker sets out another stunning arrangement. Which one is the best choice? You be the judge!