Native Plants

Perhaps you would like to check out how the California Native Plant Society is celebrating California Native Plant Week? For those of you who follow this blog you know that the author is committed to native plants whether in Sonoma County, California or in Santa Fe, New Mexico. While living in Sonoma County I have been a member of both the state Native Plant Society as as the local chapter. One benefit is a discount on plants purchased at California Flora Nursery where most of the plants were purchased for PageRefuge. 

During this post what is blooming in PageRefuge's garden will be featured. The first featured is in the West side yard:

Aristolochia californica (Dutchman’s pipevine)
with both flowers and fruit.

Strawberries in bloom

Moving North towards the backyard: 

Pink Pearl apple tree:

this is the tree that 

produces the pink

applesauce I make

with the ripe apples.

Fava beans adorned
with their stunningly beautiful flowers

Viola odorata (Wild violet)

Then walking East one encounters an area covered with lovely green tile. An antique wheelbarrow and various sizes of clay pots are located here. 

Viola tricolor (Johnny jump up)

I love these pansy related plants. They have a tendency to vociferously reseed anywhere and everywhere. Come each year about this time I walk around and pull out those that have relocated where I do not want them. Yesterday when I was delivering tomato plants I had started from seed, I dug up some of these, placed them in an empty 4" plastic pot and delivered them as well.

Then walking towards and through the East most gate to the front yard, and across the minuscule driveway:

Three Sisyrinchium californicum (Yellow eyed grass)

are near a down spout since these love water.

Lonicera involucrata (Twinberry honeysuckle)
is along the West side of the garage.
This is my and Dwight's all time very favorite native bush!

In the foreground 
Ceanothus (California wild lilac ‘Dark Star’)
and in the background 
Sisyrinchium bellum (Californian blue eyed grass)
Sitting near the house is Dwight's
sculpture he created in Santa Fe.
She is honoring the spot on Mother Earth
the pueblo peoples
came from below to above.

As I walk about my garden marveling at the transformation of the plantable space and growth of the plants, I

2023 Spring Activities

Shasta and I walk by this Amiot sculpture
almost every morning.

At start of spring I open a trench

in the ground. I put into it 

the winter’s accumulation of paper,

pages I do not want to read 

again, useless words, fragments,

errors. And I put into it

the contents of the outhouse:

light of the sun, growth of the ground,

finished with one of their journeys.

To the sky, to the wind, then

and to the faithful trees, I confess

my sins: that I have not been happy

enough, considering my good luck,

have listened to too muchnoise,

have been inattentive to wonders,

have lusted after praise.

And then upon the gathered refuse

of mind and body, I close the trench

folding shut again the dark,

the deathless earth. Beneath that seal

the old escapes into the new.

                    WENDEL BERRY

The transplanted tomato plants
in their 4" black plastic pots now sit on the heat mattress,
presently set at 80 degrees,
in the mini greenhouse Dwight built for me.
The target date to plant tomato plants
in the ground is Tuesday, May 09.

Calendula transplanted from the
large 6 cell plastic container
pictured in the greenhouse.

Comfrey for the herbal
vinegar I make to abate my osteoporosis.

The strawberry plant are blooming
and setting very small, green berries.
I love picking fresh strawberries
which often go immediately into my mouth.

Sisyrinchium bellum (Californian blue eyed grass)
Ceanothus (California wild lilac ‘Dark Star’)
both blooming now in the front of my house.

The garden at my house is beginning to come alive with flowers and new growth. It is just so exciting to see the product of my labor since Dwight, Shasta and I moved to Cotati. As I do a bit of this and a bit of that outside I have a big belly

 

Last

This is the last of Dwight's clay creations: a Green Man. His original idea was to "perfect it", fire it then hang it somewhere on the wooden fences surrounding the property. He did not get to complete it to his liking. Chris fired it as it was. When she returned it to me, the left side of the Green Man's face was in pieces. I glued them back on the best I could. He now sits just a bit South of the California Pipevine leaning against the wooden fence along the West side of my property. To my ascetics he seems to fit ever so nicely. I frequent that path along the West side of the house often when picking ripe strawberries as well as when I do some hand watering.

Strawberries planted along the West wooden fence: 

     Albion

         Chandler

         Seascape

Sequoia

It is very sad, sad, sad to me that this is the very last clay piece ever to be created by my husband of some 35 years. AND he was always so excited to bring home a new sculpture he had created to share with me. Finding just the right placement for each piece was always a joint venture. I am so fortunate to have so many of his creations about the outside of my property and in my house as well: lucky, lucky, lucky me! 

Grandfather,

Look at our brokenness,

We know that in all creation

Only the human family

Has strayed from the Sacred Way.

We know that we are the ones

Who are divided

And we are the ones

Who must come back together

To walk in the Sacred Way.

Grandfather,

Sacred One,

Teach us love, compassion, and honor

That we may heal the earth

And heal each other.        

OJIBWAY PRAYER

My house AND my life feel so very empty without Dwight sharing both with me. Yet I am ever so grateful that he is no longer struggling to breathe! We did have a very full life together. We also allowed each other to have our independence to pursue our own interests and individual patterns of BEing in the world. His love of beauty was contagious as well as reflected in his clay work.

The appreciation of life does not required wealth or plenty, It required only gratitude for the beauty of the world. 

DENG MING-DAO

As I continue with my grieving process missing Dwight's physical BEing in my life, I have a frequent good belly