Oregon Tree Hugger

When the pruners can’t be found, no one is safe.

Spring has sprung on me quite early this year. Take a garden tour with me and see what has decided to come up a month or two early over here.

I replaced my front bed of strawberries a while ago with some mixed succulents. The plants were supposed to be deer-proof, but the deer had other plans.

As part of getting to know my new house, I like to walk around the yard at different times in the season to see what is blooming or coming up. This time, I’m exploring the many Rhododendrons current living on this property.

I am replacing my old, rotten deck with a mixed stone and groundcover patio. The project began with removing the old deck and assessing the area underneath the deck for my plans.

We stopped by the 5th Street Market in Eugene the other day, where a lot of the bulbs are in bloom. The diversity of the flower shapes and colors is just fantastic. This is definitely a spring treat! Enjoy the pictures, and I am sorry about the quality—I forgot my camera and had to use my Sidekick to take the pictures.

Our mystery bulbs are finally sprouting! Read on for the pictures, and leave a note in the comments if you care to take a guess as to the identity of this midseason-blooming bulb!

Why fight nature? It’s much easier in terms of time and maintenance to work with it … and a lot more visually pleasing. I am going to try to keep a lot of the area under the trees somewhat natural. I pulled out a lot of the dandelions because they do totally take over if you let them, but I left a lot of these nice little groundcovers and poppies to grow somewhat unhindered. The result (I hope) is a natural-looking sort of woodsy area that will have a calming feel.

The Pacific Northwest is no place for a green California lawn, so we’re replacing ours out with something that is easier to maintain, drought resistant, less taxing on resources, and honestly just looks better. This is the first post in our journey.

We want to fill in the dirt spots between the bulbs and trees, but I don’t want it dying every time the kids (or deer) run through it. Enter Stepables – a durable groundcover that is very pretty yet withstands varying amounts of foot traffic.